The Miracle at Medinah, the Duel in the Sun and now the Legend of Lahinch. What happened at the weekend in the Walker Cup is right up there in history with the most thrilling, epic, hard fought wins in all the sport.

Who would have thought? It was an almost ridiculous win that had those of us who love golf spellbound as the entire result came down to the final putt on the 18th green. A tricky four foot putt holed quickly by Josh Hill, the 93rd best amateur in the world.

Having lost all four Sunday foursomes, the Great Britain and Ireland team went into the team room at lunch needing inspiration. The mood changed when the music blared out, not just any song but Wonderwall, England’s anthem of the World Cup summer. “Maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me, and after all you’re my wonderwall”.

Stuart Grehan said that was it, “F… it. We’re beating those American boys” possibly not least after American Preston Stout shouted to his team, “we’re dream crushing now”. Grehan, the Irish reinstated amateur, relished overcoming a deficit to beat Stout 2&1 in the opening match.

With thousands of spectators following each match along each fairway the atmosphere was excitable, loud and joyous, more like a Ryder Cup match. Professional Ian Poulter was watching his son Luke dispatch Ethan Fang 3&1. “Magical” he described it. As a nod to his dad’s European Ryder Cup nickname “The Postman” Luke Poulter was then dubbed “The Paper Boy”.

Jack Whaley, the US Amateur Champion from England gave William Jennings a drubbing 8&7, the largest winning margin in Walker Cup History.

The United States team only had two singles wins – Ryder Cowan and Josiah Gilbert, the last two men out, and two halved matches Niall Sheils Donegan and Kihei Akina, and Connor Grahan and Miles Russell.

GB&I’s Tyler Weaver also had a big win 4&3  against Jay Leng Jnr. Eliot Baker won 1 up against Stewart Hagestad, going down the 18th hole, he had to get something out of the match as did Josh Hill. It was all on a knife edge, but they both delivered, right down to Josh Hill’s 4 foot birdie putt.

It was the biggest comeback in the history of the Walker Cup, on a par with the 2012 Medinah Ryder Cup – that was a 4 point deficit but there were 12 singles – this Walker Cup was a 3 point deficit but with 10 singles.

The joyous scenes on the 18th green – even the officials in blazers were huggling and emotional – led to an almighty party in a Lahinch pub where, to their credit, the American Captain Nathan Smith and several of his team showed good sportsmanship came and joined the drinking and singing.

It’s been interesting to hear the American media’s impressions, whingey some of them were. “Can’t believe it, the US blew it. We expect to win the singles”. “Everything aligned for them – it never ever happens to the US in these team competitions”. Apparently the American broadcast had a funeral tone “they’re running out of time”.

Although the American dominance in the Walker Cup is undeniable 42 wins to 10 for Great Britain and Ireland, this is a good result for the future of the competition. The Americans already have their Walker Cup venues pencilled in up to 2052. In terms of pure competitive drama it’s the best ending of a team golf competition ever. From our side of the Atlantic it was great, compelling television.

Do changes need to be made?

I tend to agree that a three day format might be better – even for young golfers 36 holes a day is hard work mentally and physically. I’d like to see fourballs included as in the Ryder Cup as it’s a more aggressive format. There’s too much emphasis on the singles in the Walker Cup – 18 singles points and 8 team play shots.

 In time, maybe the format could move from GB&I to include Europe. But look at the rankings in this match – the average world amateur ranking of the United States team was 8.3, the GB&I team average is 40. And still the Americans were outplayed – they did not collapse, they didn’t blow it, they got outplayed.

Stuart Greehan made a great contribution to the GB&I team but his place on the team raises the question about reinstated amateurs. He played as a professional for six years but only won $40,000 at it. However, there have been a lot of former American former professionals who have come back to play Walker Cup golf. Perhaps this should finish. The purity of this amateur team event is distinctive. We all love professional golf, but this is different.

And many of the players this week are now off to the professional ranks. However their careers work out, they will have already experienced something out of this world.

For the rest of their lives -they’ll always have Lahinch.