I was going to write a blog about politics today, something mundane and depressing about a political party conference, something suited to a dull, chilly Autumnal morning. Then I read the online BBC headlines “Europe pull off record comeback” and “Europe in shock Ryder Cup Victory” and suddenly nothing else seemed to matter! Could this be the same competition that the Sunday Times had described as “threatening to turn into a rout” and the Mail on Sunday had contrasted with the Boston Tea Party, “Europe tipped overboard as US take control”? Was this the same tournament, of which I’d seen television highlights the previous two days, where the home crowd were exulting in glory and bellowing victory to the heavens?

Yes it was and by the end of the first two days of the tournament in which Europe, for the most part, had taken a battering, it would have been a brave man (or fool) who would have predicted a European victory when their American opponents had, in the opinion of most experts, taken a seemingly unassailable lead. The Americans no doubt thought, and with good reason, that victory was theirs for the taking but the Goddess of Sport is the most capricious of deities and as many hard bitten competitors will tell you “It aint over till it’s over”.

This was sport showing us, once again in this wonderful year of sport, how truly magical it can be. This was sport at its very best and at its most compelling. I’m not a golfer and you may not be either, but one doesn’t have to be a golfer to realise that something pretty special, or “miraculous”, as some have called Europe’s victory, took place at the Medinah Golf Club in Chicago yesterday.

The European captain, Jose Maria Olazabal, friend and former playing partner of the great Seve Ballesteros, acknowledging the inspiration his team received from the memory of his late countryman (all the team wore Ballesteros’ colours yesterday), summed up what it meant to him and his heroic team when he said “All men die but not all men live”. What a truly wonderful and profound statement that is and how much better to start the week with that than another moan about politics, don’t you think?