United States regains Ryder Cup

The Europeans arrived in Minnesota in search of a fourth consecutive win with six rookies in their ranks and got off to a terrible start, suffering a 4-0 whitewash in the opening foursomes session.

CHASKA, Minnesota In more ways than one, the United States proved up to the task as their meticulous preparations and renewed team spirit helped them beat Europe to clinch the Ryder Cup on Sunday for the first time since 2008.

“I definitely know I haven’t won a major”, Garcia said as his team applauded. “We’re going to go into it with a better attitude from here on forward”.

“The pressure to win this Ryder Cup started two years ago when some dumbass opened his mouth in the media center”, he said. “But that’s what happened the other way around for quite some time”.

McIlroy said Europe are looking to build a team for the future and that is one of the reasons they made a decision to include six rookies this year.

Outside of a superb performance from Pieters, who went 4-1-0 for the best debut performance in European history, the newcomers struggled.

“I wanted to try and take the bull by the horns”, McIlroy said. “I just felt that coming down the stretch, it was a little soft”.

“I was trying to do my role”. So good was the golf that Mickelson made four straight birdies and was only 1 up through five holes. “It just wasn’t meant to be”. It ended in a way that would have made Palmer smile, with the USA players, majority in or near tears, talking about their regard for teammates who somewhere along the way became more like a family.

Love said yesterday he knew it would be easy to welcome Moore into the Ryder Cup fold. Rose played at Hazeltine at the 2009 PGA Championship and said the course “can be as tough as you want it to be”. “And we’re bringing back the Ryder Cup because of it”.

But, it was always going to be USA’s day, with Rickie Fowler, Brandt Snedeker, who would get the crowd going at every opportunity, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Moore all winning their singles matches to make sure there would not be a repeat of the “Miracle at Medinah”.

European players came into Hazeltine with plenty of confidence having won more worldwide events this year than the Americans. They halved the par-3 17th with pars, and Fowler dodged another bullet when Rose had a 12-foot birdie putt to halve the match on the 18th hole, only to leave it short. That carried Reed and Jordan Spieth to a 2&1 win over Europe’s Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, the gold and silver medalists at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

“But I do have five Ryder Cups with some incredible teams and I’m very proud of that and I wouldn’t give any one of them away for a major”, said the Spaniard, who halved a scintillating match with Phil Mickelson. A couple guys called me and said, Bubba, I need you by my side, shoulder to shoulder. “There is nothing like it”. I know he’s put his heart and soul into this for 18 months.

“This is the greatest thing I’ve done in golf”, said Watson, who owns two Masters green jackets.

“If Miguel Angel Jimenez wants to be the next European Ryder Cup captain, he’s the man the selection panel should go for”, James told ESPN.

Captain Darren Clarke did not think Europe could have done anything more as they suffered a first Ryder Cup defeat in eight years at Hazeltine National.