Sic transit gloria mundi. Thus passes the glory of the world. There was a time when U.S. victory in the Ryder Cup was, essentially, so predetermined that no one beyond the players gave a fig about it. Then the universe connected the dots between seemingly unrelated events, mixed in a few irrepressible forces and for nearly 20 years turned it into the most heart-stopping, heartbreaking and heartburn-inducing happening in all of sport.