Europe’s Ryder Cup Win: Great Team, Great Course, Great Spirit

Alex Noren’s monster putt on the 18^th green on Sunday sealed a sublime 1up win for him over Bryson DeChambeau and closed a phenomenal Ryder Cup for Team Europe. Noren’s putt fittingly capped a wonderful Ryder Cup that saw Team Europe graft their way to a 17 ½ – 10 ½ victory over a strong USA squad.

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Europe’s performance in Paris was sublime. There are perhaps too few words to describe the brilliance of Team Europe’s play and the achievements of the likes of Francesco Molinari and Sergio Garcia. Both men broke European records this week, with Molinari becoming the first European to win all five of his Ryder Cup matches and Sergio Garcia becoming the all-time European Ryder Cup points scorer with 25 ½ points to his name.

Meanwhile, veterans like Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson, the brilliant rookie Tommy Fleetwood and the defiant rookie Thorbjorn Oleson who impressively defeated Jordan Spieth on Sunday also played brightly for Europe.

Truthfully there were very few dull moments in this years edition of the Ryder Cup for Europe, with every player delivering at least a point and deserving praise. Meanwhile, despite the USA’s heavy defeat, there were some good performers for Team USA with Justin Thomas’ 4 points from 5 matches, the most notable contribution.

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The Albatross course at Le Golf National, the venue of this years Ryder Cup probably also deserves some credit for a job well done. In an age of big hitting and low scores, the Golf course’s masses of water, narrow fairways and thick rough; tested every ounce of every Ryder Cup player and concentrated their minds towards hitting fairways and being generally accurate.

Ryder Cup Legend Nick Faldo emphasized the punishing nature of the Golf course by telling Golf Channel on Saturday: “You cannot go left or right on this Golf course”.

Meanwhile, Butch Harmon reinforced the point by albeit more subjectively writing in his Sky Sports Column: “Le Golf National is set up for accuracy, not distance. The American teams are noted for distance and don’t play a lot of courses like this, where they can bomb it and then hit wedges on to the green.”

Many have rightly commended Team Europe and have condemned and attempted to explain the performances of Team USA. I am sure we could converse all day about the toing and froing of the Ryder Cup and its key moments, but in the closing of this article, it would perhaps be better to write of the spirit of the contest.

Over 6,900 patrons were seated in the large grandstand behind the first tee, many of whom intimidated the players with unbearable chants, unrelenting noise and fearsome thunderclaps. From Tony Finau’s opening tee shot to Alex Noren’s closing putt, the over 200,000 fans in attendance throughout the week inspired players by creating an intoxicating atmosphere that made the 16^th at the Pheonix Open look like a scene from a monthly medal.

The players responded too, playing out of passion, they fist-pumped, gestured and shouted for the love of the game and the glory of their respective teams. Most pleasing to see though was the obvious respect that the two sets of players showed to one another, a sentiment perhaps best shown by the scenes at the Ryder Cup closing ceremony, where the victorious Europeans and defeated Americans congratulated and comforted each other in equal measure on the 18^th green.

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Whether we support Team USA or Team Europe, I am sure that we can all agree that the Paris Ryder Cup was an enthralling contest that showed the very best of what our great game has to offer. I cannot wait to see what Whistling Straits has in store, in 2020.

Cover Image via Instagram