We were relentless in our pursuit of excellence, says Rose
Proud Europe captain Thomas Bjorn said his Ryder Cup winners deserve to be remembered among the greats as his players hailed their “relentless” team ethic in crushing America by seven points.
Jubilant scenes erupted at Le Golf National after the home side secured the silverware comfortably, with both Sergio Garcia and Francesco Molinari setting Ryder Cup records.
As Team Europe promised to party “hard” into the night, Justin Rose hailed their “unbelievable focus” behind the scenes. “What this team did was not drop their guard until this moment right here,” he said as the players held aloft the trophy. “This team was relentless in its pursuit of excellence. We ticked every box we could control all week and our focus was unbelievable.”
Bjorn added: “This is the best team room I’ve ever been in. It was calm, it was determined, it was focused and it was fun. The Ryder Cup was everything it should be for a European team.”
The players swigged champagne after their triumph, and joked that Molinari – the first European to score five points out of five – did not know what the 17th hole looked like. Rory Mcilroy said camaraderie had given Europe the edge over America, who appeared downhearted and tired for much of the weekend.
“The great camaraderie we have, that’s built up on the European Tour, and we all have our separate lives going on, but once we get together for the Ryder Cup, we all come together as one,” he added.
Rookie Jon Rahm produced a pivotal victory over Tiger Woods and Molinari fittingly secured the winning point – his fifth of the weekend – as Europe regained the Ryder Cup in ultimately comprehensive fashion in Paris.
Afterwards Rahm said
‘It is the best team room I have ever been in’
been an honour to play with Garcia, who surpassed Nick Faldo’s record Ryder Cup points tally.
The home side’s 10-6 overnight lead meant they needed just four and a half points from the 12 singles for a ninth win in the 12 contests staged since the last American win on European soil in 1993.
The gap was reduced to just a single point as Justin Thomas beat Mcilroy on the 18th, Webb Simpson defeated Rose and Tony Finau thrashed the previously unbeaten Tommy Fleetwood. However, Thorbjorn Olesen responded to being left out on Saturday by fellow Dane Bjorn with a resounding victory over three-time major winner Spieth 5&4, while Rahm held his nerve to beat Woods and leave the 14-time major winner without a single point.
Ian Poulter took his side to the brink of victory by beating world No 1 Dustin Johnson on the 18th and it was Molinari who had the honour of officially securing the win, Phil Mickelson conceding after dumpjordan ing his tee shot into the water on the 16th to suffer a record 22nd defeat. After four wins alongside Fleetwood, Molinari is the first European player to compile a perfect 5-0 record in the contest, with American Larry Nelson the only other to do so in 1979.
After losing the first three matches on Friday morning, Europe won 10 of the next 11 against an American team which was the strongest assembled since the world rankings were introduced with an average ranking of 11.2
“They have been amazing, the 12 of them, unbelievable”, Bjorn said. “They were determined to set out and do the job themselves and for
me it was an easy job to guide them in that direction. It was getting tight a little bit, but I had belief and faith in this team that they were going to deliver and they delivered more than they should have.”
With the contest over there was still time for Henrik Stenson to make it three wins out of three by beating Bubba Watson and fellow wild card Sergio Garcia defeating Rickie Fowler to become the top points scorer in Ryder Cup history.
United States captain Jim Furyk admitted his team had lost to the better side. “At the end of the day you have to tip your cap, they outplayed us this week and Thomas was the better captain,” Furyk said.