The team Europe has once again won the Ryder Cup. With a 15-13 victory in Bethpage BlackLuke Donald’s team has set up the cup for the second time in a row.
Credit to Team USA, though – Victory did NO Come lightly.
For most of the week in Bethpage, Team Europe seemed to be on its way to a cruise control victory. The team from the entire basin won the 3-1 opening session and did not go back. After Friday, the superiority was at 5.5-2.5. At a time when a four-ball chippy session ended on Saturday, the superiority had reached 11.5-4.5.
“What we saw yesterday and what we saw today was unprecedented,” NBC analyst Brandel Chamblee noted. “Not only do they have the biggest bullet ever, they’re doing it on foreign land.”
It has long been said that winning a Ryder Cup on foreign land is one of the most difficult deeds in Golf (it only happened twice by the end of the century), but this team is making it look like light. With a seven-point command lead going to the bachelors’ session (the score was at 12-5 after rarely call the envelope rule After a Victor Hovland injury), Team USA would need a miracle during the final session.
For a short moment on Sunday, that miracle did not seem so removed.
The Americans captured the first two matches of the bachelors’ session of the Tufa birds by Cameron Young and Justin Thomas in the 18th hole-while Bryson Dechambeau fought to win a half-winning half. With some other American players who hold late, RED began to spread throughout the leader. The road to victory, though narrow, was starting to take shape.
While the first matches withdrew Sunday morning, Americans had only a 1.5 percent chance to win the cup. Following a furious Sunday’s charge, those chances increased continuously. And while match 8 between Shane Lowry and Russel Henley went to 18, the European lead was reduced to only two points.
After all, the return offer was not supposed to be. Only after 5:15 pm with local time, Shane Lowry rolled in a bird’s stroke in the 18th green to win the hole and win a half point to hold the cup for the euro.
“It was the 12 most stressful hours of my life,” Donald said. “Call to the Americans and Keegan and his captain. We knew they would be harsh, (but) I didn’t think they would be so harsh on Sunday. They fought so much. Respect for them.”
As the last blow fell, Lowry released a wild bang, threw his tightness and jumped around green. After a hug with the cadet and the shaking of his hands with his opponent, Lowry drapted an Irish flag on his shoulders and moistened with the moment.
“That was the two hardest hours of my life,” Lowry said. “I just can’t believe it. Ryder cup means everything to me.”
With victory, Europe has now raised the trophy after six of the past eight Ryder cups, and nine of the past 12 – and Donald made a small story of it. With a second consecutive captain of Ryder Cup, he joins Tony Jacklin as the only European captain who won at home and foreign land.
