The Americans entered Sunday’s singles matches with a 3-1 lead following Friday’s play. Still, the Cup would be decided with the 36-hole singles matches, and Snead had to tread carefully. He still needed 3 ½ points for the U.S. to retain the Cup, and the Americans had not lost it since 1933.
Perhaps protecting Alexander or maybe to get into his opponent’s head, Snead paired Alexander against Britain’s top player, John Panton, who had topped the Order of Merit and won the Vardon Trophy. Panton, a member of three Ryder Cup teams, would finish his career with 38 professional victories. Years later, like the “Arnold Palmer,” Panton had a beverage named after him. The mix of non-alcoholic ginger beer and a dash of lime cordial was named the “John Panton.”
All things considered, Alexander didn’t see the logic in the matchup.
“I don’t know whether Snead knew that I was going to play … and (Sam) was just forfeiting the match or leading the lambs to the slaughter,” Alexander told the St. Petersburg Country Club. “But having to play their No. 1 man, I wouldn’t have been the choice. I’d have had Hogan play him.”
“I was all bandaged up; my hands were bleeding. I played John Panton, the Vardon Trophy winner, Order of Merit winner, leading money winner and everything. I’d never walked 36 holes before that, and it was a 36-hole match. So I took off, and every time I played a hole, I wondered if I could play the next. But it worked out all right (chuckling). I beat him 8 & 7, which as I heard, was the biggest margin that anybody had won by. … I three-putted No. 10 though, in that afternoon round, or I might have won 9 & 8. I remember wondering if that was the beginning of the end and I wouldn’t win another hole.”
Alexander didn’t know whether he could even finish 36 holes. He had never played a 36-hole match before.
It turned out he didn’t have to.
His hands bleeding throughout the match, Alexander pulled off one of the most unlikely upsets in the playing of the Ryder Cup. Beating Panton 8 & 7, Alexander helped the Americans clinch the Cup with the most lopsided match in the event’s history to that point.
Even Alexander couldn’t believe it.
“I was all bandaged up; my hands were bleeding,” he told the country club. “I played John Panton, the Vardon Trophy winner, Order of Merit winner, leading money winner and everything. I’d never walked 36 holes before that, and it was a 36-hole match. So I took off, and every time I played a hole, I wondered if I could play the next. But it worked out all right (chuckling). I beat him 8 & 7, which as I heard, was the biggest margin that anybody had won by. … I three-putted No. 10 though, in that afternoon round, or I might have won 9 & 8. I remember wondering if that was the beginning of the end and I wouldn’t win another hole.”
He was right. Alexander never won again.