Europe clinches Ryder Cup victory in Paris

Paul Casey, who last played at the 2008 Ryder Cup, also shone on his return – halving with Brooks Koepka to prevent the USA from reeling off four straight wins to start Sunday.

They were the hottest partnership at the Ryder Cup and now “Moliwood” – Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood – have been filmed waking up together with the trophy between them.

Fast-forward seven days and the 14-time major champion was fronting up to a seventh Ryder Cup defeat in eight appearances after losing all four of his matches at Le Golf National.

The last one set off a wild, champagne-soaked celebration.

The US had 11 players in the world’s top 20, Europe only six. Molinari made it official.

The finish was most appropriate.

The new golden boy of European golf was being treated like a God, but he wasn’t the only hallowed hero out there.

“I would have loved to have won my match obviously, but look at the score on the board there”, McIlroy. No need to hit any more errant shots on a day filled with them.

The Ryder Cup is headed to Rome in 2022 and, in Molinari, Italy has its flawless poster boy. The idea was to build continuity and momentum, and it seemed to work when they won at Hazeltine in 2016.

Some of that is unfair – you have to have played in more Ryder Cups than anyone else to have more losses than anyone else – but his 18-22-7 record speaks for itself. “The Europeans played about how you would expect a team of their caliber to play in a Ryder Cup”.

Finau, who won more that $6 million last season, including his FedEx Cup bonus, will compete next week at the Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarn golf courses in Scotland.

Rahm drew the unenviable task of taking on Tiger Woods in Sunday’s singles play, but he took the opening hole with a birdie and never trailed the rest of the way.

“This team has been incredible from the start”, Molinari told the Golf Channel. They played 14 holes in 1 over in the foursomes portion of the event and never saw the 15th.

The Americans launched a thrilling fightback, though, by winning three consecutive holes as they threatened to become the first duo to ever win after being 4-down with five to play.

“I think early in the week, he looked a little exhausted”, US captain Jim Furyk said of Woods.

“There’s always a moment where it looks like a spark of light”, Furyk said. “Then it just comes down to us playing and playing as well as we can”. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas took that hole to go 1 DOWN.

And then at the Ryder Cup, it was another result with which he is far too familiar. They led the team in majors with 19, but the other 10 guys came in with 12 of their own.

“It’s disappointing because I went 0-4, and that’s four points to the European Team”.

The two most famous men on the US team inevitably come up when Team USA’s future is discussed.

But Jon Rahm, Ian Poulter and Thorbjorn Olesen delivered match-winning points. Something had to give in that match; neither had ever lost in Ryder Cup singles.

He was the sole American left twiddling his thumbs with Furyk unable to risk him after his erratic performance in a heavy 5&4 foursomes defeat to Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren.

As it turned out, Woods played a ton, missing just two cuts and competing in 68 official rounds on the PGA Tour.