Team Europe turned back an attempted rally by the United States to win the 44th Ryder Cup on Sunday at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, Italy, beating the Americans for the seventh time on European soil.
Tommy Fleetwood (pictured) of England claimed the deciding point when he defeated Rickie Fowler, 3 and 1, in one of the 12 Singles matches and Europe, led by Captain Luke Donald of England, went on to a 16½-11½ victory to regain the Cup that the U.S. won, 19-9, two years ago at Whistling Straights Golf Club in Sheboygan, Wis.
“All week, all we’ve been talking about is getting off to fast starts,” said second-ranked Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, who defeated Sam Burns, 3 and 1, to complete a 4-1 record this weekend, playing in all five sessions.
“Playing three-hole matches in practice — three holes, go again, three holes, go again — something that Luke’s drilled into us.”
In addition to McIlroy’s victory, fourth-ranked Viktor Hovland of Norway beat Collin Morikawa of La Canada Flintridge and Cal, 4 and 3; Tyrrell Hatton of England downed Brian Harman, the reigning Open champion, 3 and 2, and Robert McIntyre of Scotland turned back Wyndham Clark, the reigning U.S. Open champion, 2 and 1.
Third-ranked Jon Rahm of Spain, the reigning Masters champion, made a two-putt birdie from 90 feet on the 18th hole to halve his match with top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, and Shane Lowry of Ireland rallied from 2 down after 10 holes to tie Jordan Spieth.
“We simply didn’t get it done,” U.S. Captain Zach Johnson said.
For the U.S., seventh ranked Max Homa of Valencia and Cal beat eighth-ranked Matt Fitzpatrick of England, l up; Brooks Koepka, the reigning PGA champion, downed Ludvig Aberg of Sweden, 3 and 2; Justin Thomas defeated Sepp Straka of Austria, 2 up, and sixth-ranked Xander Schauffele of La Jolla and San Diego State took down Nicolai Hojgaard of Denmark, 3 and 2.
“They’re going to go out and put some blue on the board early,” Donald said of his team, which took a 10½-5½ lead into the final day and they did by winning three of the first six matches and halving another.
Team USA, which leads the series, 27-15-2, last won the Ryder Cup on European soil with a 15-13 victory in 1993 at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield, England.
The 45th Ryder Cup will be played in September of 2025 at Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, N.Y., on Long Island.
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