José María Olazábal has stayed in the United States after serving as vice-captain of the European team at the Ryder Cup. Specifically, he has traveled from New York to Jacksonville to compete in a new tournament on the PGA Tour Champions. This is the Constellation Furyk & Friends, at the Timuquana Country Club. Miguel Ángel Jiménez is also there.
Few people in the world of golf can convey emotions better than Olazábal. He has demonstrated this throughout his career. Jon Rahm himself admitted on Sunday, after finishing at Bethpage, that he couldn’t hold back the tears after seeing José María following the victory. The man from Fuenterrabía experiences everything intensely and can recount it afterward with the same intensity. Taking advantage of his presence at the Champions tournament, where Jim Furyk, curiously the vice-captain of the American team, acts as host, he was asked how he experienced the Ryder Cup. His response is priceless.
His assessment of the first two days is impeccable. “I think the team made history, it’s that simple. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, especially playing in New York, but I think the team performed really, really well, especially the first two days. We managed to win all four sessions, and that gave us a big cushion,” he explains as an overview. As everyone knows, the Ryder took an almost 180-degree turn on Sunday during the singles session. No one expected so much suffering. Not even someone seasoned in a thousand battles of suffering like Josemari. “To be completely honest, I didn’t think it would be so close, or at least it shouldn’t have been so close. But well, all credit to the U.S. team. It’s incredible how they fought. They almost turned it all around.”
In this regard, Olazábal is convinced that the result of the Ryder Cup would have been completely different if Shane Lowry hadn’t holed his birdie putt on the 18th hole. “If Shane doesn’t make that putt on 18, I think it’s most likely that the U.S. team would have won the Ryder Cup,” he states. Regarding the feelings before that crucial moment for the Irishman, the Basque leaves no doubt. “Yes, I mean, it was… well, really, the two and a half hours leading up to that moment, I have to say, were perhaps the toughest I’ve experienced in my career as a golfer, especially because we thought that with that cushion, we should have closed the matter much earlier. At that moment, I think it was crucial.” Let’s remember that Olazábal has won two Masters and was a key figure in the great miracle of the Ryder Cup at Medinah, so, for this and many other reasons, he knows a thing or two about suffering on a golf course.
“If Shane [Lowry] didn’t make that putt on [No.] 18, I think Team USA would have won the Ryder Cup.”@RyderCupEurope vice-captain José María Olazábal knew how important the clinching putt was at Bethpage. pic.twitter.com/1K82W3XZu0
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) October 1, 2025
The reality is that right after the Ryder Cup ended, Olazábal was one of the most emotional members of the European team. He hugged Lowry almost as if he were his son and celebrated it to the fullest. “I think that’s why everything came out: all the emotions, all the tension, all the stress, and we were very aware of it. Shane was very aware of it, and that’s why we reacted the way we did”.
