Emotions were high on Sunday night as Team Europe not only retained the Ryder Cup, but won the golfing tournament in New York following a difficult final day.
Team USA trailed by seven points heading into Sunday’s singles sessions but roared back into contention with a series of tight wins throughout the day.
Europe did just enough to hold onto the title, with Offaly man Shane Lowry delivering the crucial half-point in match number eight, taking Europe to 14 points by holing a putt to tie against Russell Henley.
Tyrrell Hatton was tied with Collin Morkawa going into the final hole, but managed to shoot a par four, earning the final half point needed for Europe to win the 2025 edition at Bethpage.
Speaking after he retained the Ryder Cup with a mammoth putt, Shane was visibly emotional as he spoke to Sky Sports on ‘the hardest couple of hours of my whole life.’
He said: ‘I’ve been so lucky to experience amazing things in this game. I just can’t believe that putt went in, I just stood over it going, “This is it.” I said, “I have the chance to do the coolest thing in my life here.”
‘And like, the Ryder Cup means everything to me, honestly. I won the Open in Ireland, it’s amazing. It’s a dream come true but the Ryder Cup, for me, is everything.
The Offaly native added: ‘To do that there today in front of everyone, it’s like, it was so hard out there. Fair play to the US lads. We knew they were going to come out fighting but… I just hope one of the boys can get a half point so we can get the win. Obviously, we’ve retained the cup, but we want to win as well.’
As the European supporters cheered and chanted, Sky Sports also spoke to Rory McIlroy, who was just as emotional as his pal and fellow Irish golfer.
Swallowing back tears, Rory admitted: ‘I am extremely proud to be part of this team. I’m extremely proud of every single one of the players, the BCS, the captain, all the background support staff.
‘This was an unbelievable collective effort, as soon as we won in Rome, we turned our attention to trying to do something that everyone thought was pretty impossible to do.
‘Not just win America, but win here in New York. It’s just, it’s been an amazing week.’
Touching on the support from fans, Rory added: ‘To do something that a lot of people thought we couldn’t do. The comments, and what people were saying after whistling straights about this “decades of American dominance.” That was, we took a lot from that. We let that fuel us.’
The Down man paid tribute to Europe captain, Luke Donald, who he branded ‘absolutely amazing.’
‘A lot of the credit has to go down to him. 11 out of the 12 players from Rome came back, we did what we needed to do and we’re going to celebrate like there’s no tomorrow,’ Rory concluded.
It comes following a difficult tournament which saw a lot of the European players heckled and jeered at by American fans, with Rory at one stage seeming to flip the crowd off.
Speaking at the press conference after the Ryder Cup win, Rory told journalists his feelings as he noted ‘golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there last week.’
He said: ‘Golf has the ability to unite people. Golf teaches you very good life lessons — it teaches you etiquette, it teaches you how to play by the rules, it teaches you how to respect people.
‘Sometimes, this week, we didn’t see that. This should not be acceptable in the Ryder Cup.’
