Sports

Europeans post historic rally to avenge ’99 Ryder Cup defeat

MEDINAH, Ill. — Payback is a …

Well, let’s just say it hurts. Badly. It stings. And it sometimes takes years for the pain to subside.

Just ask the Europeans.

Despite having won four of the last five Ryder Cups, they still felt the pangs of pain left over from the stunning U.S. comeback win in 1999 at Brookline, Mass., where the Americans overcame a 10-6 deficit entering the final-day singles to stamp the greatest comeback in the history of the biennial competition.

Now, after Europe’s shocking 14 1/2-13 1/2 victory yesterday at Medinah, a win that erased the identical 10-6 deficit and ended in the identical final score as ’99, the Americans feel the pain the Europeans have been living with for the last 13 years.

Europe left the U.S. players standing slack-jawed around the 18th green as struggling German Martin Kaymer — the Europeans’ weakest player this week, of all insults — rolled in a five-foot par putt to beat Steve Stricker and deliver the clinching point.

“I don’t have a reaction yet,’’ U.S. captain Davis Love III said as he stood on the 18th green amidst a bedlam of an European celebration. “We are all kind of stunned. We know what it feels like now from the ’99 Ryder Cup.

“I know what we felt like [in ’99] and the stunning defeat that they had that day and we knew that they remembered that, as well,’’ Love said.

“How this compared to ’99?’ Jim Furyk said. “Well, that was fun and this was pretty miserable. It was a hell of a lot of fun being on the other end.’’

For the European side, which always has viewed the Ryder Cup with more passion and intensity than the Americans, this one was particularly special — because of the payback and because it was the first Cup played since Seve Ballesteros died in 2011.

There were memories and images of Seve, one of the greatest Ryder Cup players of all time and virtually the patriarch of the event, everywhere this week. His silhouette was etched onto the European players’ golf bags and on the sleeves of their shirts.

“Seve will always be present with this team,’’ said Olazabal, a protégé of Ballesteros.

Channeling his inner Ballesteros — and Ben Crenshaw, who famously forecast the Americans’ comeback in ’99 as their captain — Olazabal willed his players to believe with a powerful Saturday night speech.

“He had a few of us in the team room in tears,’’ Rory McIlroy said.

“Jose wanted to win it for Seve and we wanted to win it for Jose and Seve,’’ Graeme McDowell said. “We dug in and dug in deep today.’’

McIlroy, playing in only his second Ryder Cup, said the players knew it was possible “because the Americans did it to us in ’99.’’

In ’99, the Americans won the first six matches on the board en route to their historic comeback. Yesterday, Europe won the first five matches and everywhere around Medinah you could feel the tension mounting — from the players on the course right up into the packed grandstands, where the U.S. fans became nervously quiet.

“We silenced the crowd by playing great golf early,’’ Lee Westwood said. “It’s not that the crowd turned on them, but the crowd went quiet and almost got desperate, saying ‘We need you, we need this point,’ and that was a lot of pressure to put on their players.’’

Perhaps the most devastating blow to the U.S. came when Furyk lost a 1-up lead to Sergio Garcia, dropping the last two holes. That gave Europe its first lead of the week at 13-12 and left it needing only one more point from one of the three remaining matches to retain the coveted gold chalice.

Kaymer, whose game has been in the tank for the better part of a year, delivered it, beating Stricker, who went 0-4 this week.

“Beer and tears — I think that sums up the evening ahead,’’ McDowell said.

You needed to look no further than the euphoric scene on the 18th green, which had transformed into a dance floor, and to hear the chants of “Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole’’ that had drowned out the “USA, USA, USA’’ chants to know who would be crying tears of joy and who would be crying the tears of pain.

This hurt will reside inside the souls of the U.S. players for a long time … until they can exact their own payback.

mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com