Smiles and laughter bond team Europe

THE bond that the European team share was in full flow in their victorious press conference.

After a sombre American debriefing, which included captain Jim Furyk (right) shooting a whole barrage of daggers at one reporter who questioned why he didn’t pair Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed together, into the media centre traipsed the jubilant Europeans in a very obvious party mood.

There was faux mocking of Sergio Garcia’s laugh, plenty of jokes at Francesco Molinari’s expense and the revelation that Thomas Bjorn is to get a winning tattoo in a yet to be (and hopefully not) disclosed location on his body between the real answers, and whenever American reporter Alan Shipnuck — who declared last year that the Ryder Cup would be dominated by the US for years to come — asked a question, he too was roped into the cheers and mockery.

And it was that unity which epitomised what this European team was about, starting with the outstanding pairing of ‘Moliwood’ and finishing with their exuberant celebration over Alex Noren’s late victory over Bryson DeChambeau — a point that didn’t matter in the slightest to the final result.

That’s not to say the Americans were a divided camp, far from it. But when you saw the bond that Molinari and Fleetwood had, you just knew that the USA had nothing even close to it, even the best buddy pairing of Spieth and Justin Thomas. Indeed, how fitting that it was Molinari, the first European player in Ryder Cup history to win five points in a week, was the one to finish it all off with the clinching point. Alright, technically it had been won before Phil Mickelson went for a swim on the 16th, but that was the moment the hosts broke the cherished 14-point mark.

And how about Garcia? The man whose selection as a