Across the sea
Americans routed to leave Ryder Cup in Europe again
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Europe waited two long years for that one moment when the Ryder Cup was back in its hands.
Exactly when it happened Sunday was unclear, making it all the better for the victors.
At roughly the same time, in two singles matches on two greens at Le Golf National separated by 150 yards of water, Sergio Garcia and Francesco Molinari each made a par to secure at least a halfpoint, either one giving Europe the 14 1/2 points it needed to regain the Ryder Cup from the United States.
As the celebration was just getting started, Molinari capped off the first 5-0 week at the Ryder Cup for a European.
Three of those points came at the expense of Tiger Woods, who left France without contributing a point. Molinari won his singles match against Phil Mickelson, officially putting the winning point on the board for Europe and putting Mickelson in the record book for the most losses in Ryder Cup history.
And then Garcia won his match to set the record for the most career points in Ryder Cup history.
It was like that all week. Europe produced stars old and new with a team that was as strong as ever.
“We got it right this week,” European captain Thomas Bjorn said. “We never, ever looked toward their team about what they were about. We were about us as a team and what we do. … Everything that this Ryder Cup was is what I think the Ryder Cup should be about for a European team.”
Mostly, it’s about winning. The final shot came from Alex Noren, who, after conceding a short birdie putt to Bryson DeChambeau on the 18th hole, made a 40-foot birdie putt to win the match. That made it 17 1/2-10 1/2, the biggest Ryder Cup rout in 12 years.
Two years after the Americans thought they had their Ryder Cup problems figured out, Europe reminded them Sunday which team practically has owned that shiny gold trophy for the past quarter-century. Europe now has won nine of the past 12 biennial matches, the Americans remain winless away from home since 1993 — and there wasn’t much U.S. captain Jim Furyk could do about it in France.
“They played some great golf this week, and I take my cap off,” Furyk said. “Thomas was a better captain, and their team outplayed us. And there’s nothing else more you can say. They deserved to win.”
Molinari was just as good on his own as he was with Tommy Fleetwood, and the best year of his golfing life somehow got better. Just more than two months ago, the 35-year-old Italian was posing with that silver claret jug at the British Open as his country’s first major champion. This felt just as sweet because it was a trophy he shared with a team.
“This team has been incredible from the start,” Molinari said. “We were determined to do the job. Nothing was going to stop us. And you saw it on the course.”
It was the most lopsided victory since consecutive 18 1/2-9 1/2 victories by Europe more than a decade ago when the Americans looked utterly lost. They formed a Ryder Cup task force after the 2014 loss. The idea was to build continuity and momentum, and it seemed to work when the Americans won at Hazeltine Golf Club near Minneapolis in 2016.
Now, maybe it’s back to the drawing board.
“Let’s be honest — the European side played some exquisite golf,” Mickelson said.
The same couldn’t be said for Mickelson or Woods, two giants of their generation, both with losing records in the Ryder Cup.
Mickelson didn’t even play Saturday and lost his matches Friday and Sunday. He started the week by setting a record with his 12th appearance in the Ryder Cup, and it ended with 22 losses, a record by either side. At 48, he might not get another chance.
“I did not play well this year,” Mickelson said. “This could very well, realistically, be my last one.”
Woods was 0-4, the first time in eight Ryder Cups he failed to contribute a single point. This was one week after he capped a personal comeback following four back surgeries with a victory at the Tour Championship, the 80th of his PGA Tour career and his first in more than five years.
But he looked like he lacked energy on the course and certainly in his speech over the past two days.
“It’s disappointing because I went 0-4, and that’s four points to the European team,” he said. “And I’m one of the contributing factors to why we lost the cup, and it’s not a lot of fun. It’s frustrating because I thought we were all playing pretty well, and I just didn’t perform at the level that I had been playing, and just got behind early in the matches and never got back.”