Chaska, Minnesota …
Rookie Ryan Moore, and the last man into the team, delivered USA it’s first Ryder Cup victory in eight years at Hazeltine.
Moore’s ‘wildcard’ pick a week earlier had been lost in the emotion of Arnold Palmer passing away.
But the 33-year olf Las Vegas golfer played a victory hand winning his match 1 Up when struggling Lee Westwood who bogeyed the last to continue a terrible showing by Westwood, who like Moore, had been a ‘wildcard’ choice.
It gave the USA Team a 15 to 10 point leading cushion and the winning margin to regain the Ryder Cup for a first time since 2008 at Valhalla.
After an 8-year drought the USA win back the Ryder Cup.
It had been a fired-up Texan Patrick Reed that set the Stars and Stripes victory on the right path in humbling European top gun, Rory McIlroy.
McIlroy’s putting woes came back to haunt him towards the end of his match and while getting back to 1 down when Reed bogeyed the 17th, Reed brought the crowd to the feet and roaring with delight when he matched McIlroy’s birdie at 18 for a 1 Up triumph.
Henrik Stenson gave Europe its first point of the day but only after Jordan Spieth was deemed to have moved his ball in stepping into the edge of a water hazard at the 16th.
Spieth accepted the ruling that handed Stenson a 3 & 2 win.
Europe won the next two matches, and both also 3 & 2 thanks to the rookie pair of Thomas Pieter and Rafa Cabrera-Bello.
But while there was three ‘Blue’ wins up front, there remained a sea of red further down the board including Brooks Koepka ending Danny Willett’s miserable first Ryder Cup with a thumping 5 & 4 triumph.
Willett was 1 Up through five holes but after Koepka eagled the seventh the writing was on the wall for the Masters Champion.
