Europe have regained the Ryder Cup from the United States after a gripping and historic finale at a packed Celtic Manor.Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell saw off a fierce challenge from American Hunter Mahan to lead his team to victory by 14.5 points to 13.5.
After Sunday morning’s play was washed out in Newport, South Wales, the teams went head-to-head on a Monday for the first time in the tournament’s 83-year history. The Europeans dominated before singles wins for Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Zach Johnson and Mahan’s late challenge meant the result went right down to the wire. But a wayward putt from Mahan on the 17th hole saw him concede defeat to pass the trophy back to Europe – and send the invading capacity crowd around the green wild.It was another Ryder Cup victory for Colin Montgomerie, captaining his team for the first time. He told Sky Sports: “It is a proud moment for everybody in Europe, we played to a man magnificently. “I don’t want to talk about how close it was, I only want to talk about every player playing how well they did – they did so well.”
Yet the last-gasp hero McDowell – who triumphed at the US Open earlier this year – said the pressure on him to win made his victory in America seem like he was playing a “back nine against my Dad” at home in Northern Ireland.
“I was really nervous,” he told Sky Sports. “The fans have just been unbelievable. There’s nothing quite like it.” At Celtic Manor, Sky News’ sports editor Nick Powell described the final day’s play as “extraordinary”. “It looked like (Europe) could win convincingly, and we looked at record margins of victories,” Powell said. “But (the US team) made as big a fight of it as they possibly could without winning,” he added. “The Europeans must be very happy and relieved – SKYnews
