Maybe now we should all call him Sir Sergio?

until you can walk, my boy.” But he was already running anyway.

By the September of that year, Sergio was with us in the Ryder Cup team in Brookline and my main memory is that he seemed to win every game he played with Jesper Parnevik. And then, even when he lost to Jim Furyk 4&3 in the singles, he was running about everywhere trying to rouse the team.

Usually, as an individual, you are a bit peed off with losing, but not Sergio. He was right out there, jumping around and cheering on the team.

When I was the captain in 2010, Sergio was obviously high on my list, but he was so out of form I was worried how he would make it. Well, he came up to me at the Open

He went to Le Golf National as a controversial pick and justified it in ridiculous fashion

Championship that year and said: “You don’t have to pick me – I just want Europe to win.”

In the event, he became my vicecaptain and was so much of an asset, giving me advice Seve-style. – and he was only in his early thirties.

And to think he came back from that low point to do this. He is the record points scorer so nobody can argue about that. He is the best foursomes player there has ever been.

Sergio hits fairways and greens and, it sounds obvious, but in the Ryder Cup that is absolute gold. Yes, hole the odd long putt, chip in from a bunker – fine, but two putts to win the hole is the best way to do it.

This is Sergio’s speciality. His win against Fowler summed it up.

Sergio is so hard to beat. He is like a boxer with combination after combination. I am so thrilled for him.

I thought America would win because their players would be a bit wiser than this. But they plainly showed up at Le Golf National and thought they could blast Europe off the earth.

They couldn’t. It took fairways and greens and the PGA Tour does not believe in that. They bomb it and gouge it out of the rough and that, to me, is not proper golf.

Look at Francesco Molinari. What a year he has enjoyed. An Open champion and the first European ever to win five points out of five in the Ryder Cup. He is a man after my own heart, a man I admire very much.

This has been an eye-opener for the United States after Hazeltine in 2016, where the set-up on the course was like a pro-am, where it was a birdie-fest and a long-driving competition.

Whistling Straits, which will be the next venue in two years’ time, will no doubt be the same, but golf should be about accuracy and finesse and this week in France has proved that a good course design will beat these stupid distances that the ball goes.

It was made for ball strikers such as Tommy Fleetwood, Molinari and, of course, the finest of all in Sergio.

It was a win for golf as well as Europe. But the Americans will not see it like that.

Colin Montgomerie is an ambassador of Aberdeen Standard Investments – proud Worldwide Partner of the Ryder Cup