Ryder Cup 2006: Philip Reid on the joyous scenes that accompanied Europe's record-equalling victory

If Chris DiMarco was aware of extreme sports, having broken a rib while skiing earlier in the year which very nearly scuppered his Ryder Cup playing chances, those members of the victorious European team at The K Club in September were introduced to the altogether more radical concept of "bodysurfing" after their win in golf's biggest international team competition.

In the aftermath of their record-equalling 18½ to 9½ triumph, a number of Ian Woosnam's team were carried on a tidal wave of emotion, juggled from one pair of hands to another, in a physical manifestation of the crowd's euphoric state of mind.

When, finally, the players came to rest in the main public area, their horizons were broadened by requests that they sign autographs on certain parts of the anatomy that, well, only such beings as the streaker who interrupted Paul McGinley's singles match with JJ Henry on the 18th green would likely reveal.

While Europe's win, built in stages over the first two days of fourballs and foursomes and compounded by a magnificent effort in the singles, made the 2006 Ryder Cup a memorable one from a playing point of view, so too did the atmosphere created by the crowds - unprecedented in the history of the match - succeed in making the match extra special. As George O'Grady, the executive director of the PGA European Tour, reflected, "I think superlatives run out when you think of Ireland."

Indeed, the belief is that The K Club staging has set a benchmark for future matches. As O'Grady put it, "the Irish Ryder Cup to me was the epitome of what the European Tour is about, played in the most wonderful atmosphere. The result was almost immaterial."

Certainly, it was a week when Ian Woosnam's style of captaincy emerged with much plaudits. Woosnam, it seemed, had been outmanoeuvred at every turn in the run-up to the match by his opposite number Tom Lehman.

Where Lehman had contacted each and every one of the possible "wild card" picks before announcing them publicly, Woosnam announced his two captain's picks without notifying the players - apart from Darren Clarke - beforehand.

It led to Thomas Bjorn, spurned by Woosnam in favour of Lee Westwood, calling Woosnam's captaincy "pathetic" and resulted in a record fine by the European Tour for the Dane.

On other fronts, Lehman had seemed to upstage Woosnam.

He brought all 12 of his team to The K Club for a reconnaissance trip, while Woosnam never got all 12 of his team together until the Monday of the week of the match. From then on, though, Woosnam's captaincy took shape. From the time that he played a video of great golfing deeds to the accompaniment of Rudyard Kipling's poem If that night, each piece of the jigsaw fell into place for Europe.

From the first fourball session on the Friday, Europe emerged on top. That Friday morning, Clarke, playing just six weeks after his wife lost her long battle with cancer, had been introduced on the first tee for his fourball with Westwood to the thumping of umbrellas on the u-shaped grandstand around the first tee and they went on to defeat Phil Mickelson and DiMarco.

Neither Clarke nor Westwood would lose a match in the Ryder Cup, once again confirming that Woosnam's decision making had been entirely correct.

There had been a perfect symmetry about Europe's wins in the fourballs and foursomes ahead of the decisive singles. Each session, amazingly, had finished 2½ to 1½ to Europe, which meant that Woosnam's men carried a 10-6 lead into the final day's session of 12 singles where Europe's supremacy once again reflected that shown over the previous two days of competition.

Having won each of the previous sessions by 2½ to 1 ½ points margins, Team Europe made it a clean sweep of all five sessions by emphatically taking the singles by 8 ½ to 3½, with Sweden's Henrik Stenson having the honour of claiming the decisive victory - over Vaughn Taylor - that took them across the line.

All in all, it was a hugely impressive victory for Europe, the one-time whipping boys of this contest, in what Stewart Cink - who was on the losing team - claimed was, "the greatest Ryder Cup ever".