When Justin Thomas holed his birdie putt to defeat Tommy Fleetwood on the 18th green, having fought back from being two holes down against the Englishman, nerves started to creep in around the European continent. Thomas’ moment in front of the grandstand came not long after Cameron Young had fended off a Justin Rose comeback on a day where the USA could not afford any errors. With Young and Thomas scoring victories over their opponents, two players who had played tremendously on Friday and Saturday, a once impossible comeback for the red, white and blue nation suddenly started to look ever so slightly possible. Europe held off their opponents in the end, but while Friday and Saturday were dominant for the blue and gold, Sunday was equally nerve-jangling.
As Thomas and Fleetwood shook hands on the 18th, Bryson DeChambeau was mounting a sensational comeback against Matt Fitzpatrick in the group behind. The shift in momentum could be felt throughout the course. Just before Thomas defeated Fleetwood on the 18th, Fitzpatrick’s par putt on the 17th lipped out of the hole, giving his American opponent the hole, tying the match after Fitzpatrick had been five up heading to the eighth tee. With Europe ahead in just one other match, and the US ahead in five, Fitzpatrick’s blown lead felt like the momentum swing that might just lead to a historic comeback, which is what made Thomas’ win so significant. The New York crowd, which had been rowdy all weekend, but often tamed by Europe’s elite play on Friday and Saturday, was now starting to believe.
After Viktor Hovland had pulled out through injury, his match against Harris English was halved to start the day. Following that result, Young and Thomas won on the 18th for the Americans, and John Rahm was defeated 4&3 by Xander Schauffele to add another red point onto the board. Ludvig Aberg was the only man from Europe to win his match on the day and, had DeChambeau made it four out of five possible wins for the US as each group’s round progressed, the grandstand might have taken off from the noise, especially given the position the two-time US Open champion was once in. Unfortunately for the hosts, Bryson’s long birdie putt missed left, tying the final hole and therefore the match with Fitzpatrick, who also missed a long birdie attempt. Despite the momentum being with the Americans after Bryson’s fightback, the half point moved Europe to the brink of retaining the Ryder Cup, now leading 13.5-8.5, with 14 needed to retain. Still, though, nerves were aplenty with the hosts leading four of the remaining six matches.
Next to arrive on the 18th hole were the two best players in the world. Scottie Scheffler teed off on the final hole one up against Rory McIlroy. It had been a great weekend for McIlroy, while Scheffler had struggled despite his dominant season. But the American put his bad Friday and Saturday behind him, fending off the 2025 Masters champion to keep American hopes of a comeback alive. The following match didn’t come down to the last hole as J. J. Spaun defeated Sepp Straka 2&1. Suddenly, despite a dominant first two days, followed by only a win by Aberg and a tie from Fitzpatrick so far on the Sunday, European fans were struggling to see where the final half point would come from.
After Straka fell, Shane Lowry was the next man with a chance to retain Europe’s glory on America’s soil. Two holes down after 14, Lowry won the 15th, and then hit a masterful approach on the 16th, sticking the ball right by the pin to surely tie the match. But Russell Henley held the Irishman off, matching him with a birdie. Two holes remained. On the 17th, Henley remained firm as the two split the hole with a par each. Heading down the 18th, Lowry knew he had an opportunity at greatness. Win the hole, retain the Ryder Cup. After the two exchanged tee shots, the Irishman looked like he would do it. Henley pulled his shot left into the bunker. Uphill lie, 128 yards from the pin, Henley stuck the ball on the green with his second shot of the hole, 10 feet from the cup with one of the shots of the weekend. Lowry had to at least match his opponent, and had the luxury of taking his approach from the middle of the fairway given his perfect tee shot. The only sets of eyes from the golfing world which were not glued to Lowry standing over the ball were those of the players behind him on the course. The 2019 Open Champion showed his class, placing the ball beautifully onto the green as it spun back to sit inside Henley’s ball, a much needed swing of momentum in Europe’s favour, something that had been hard to come by throughout the final day.
A 10 foot putt for Henley and the nerves were skyrocketing around the European continent as he went through his routine. A make and the Ryder Cup would come down to the final three matches, with the US leading one, and the other two tied at the time of Henley’s birdie putt. With all the pressure in the world on the American’s shoulders, his country’s hopes in his hands in the form of his putter, he made a perfect read but the ball was left short of the hole, an agonising end to a hard-fought round from Henley, right after one of the shots of his life. Still, though, Lowry had to make his putt to retain the Ryder Cup. There seemed to be an eternity between when the ball left the face of the Irishman’s putter to when it finally dropped in the hole, but once it disappeared into the cup, the raw emotion of Lowry was unleashed. One of the best moments of his career, exemplified by his ecstatic celebration on the green as he was soon greeted by his captain and teammates. Lowry said he told his caddie, Darren Reynolds, that he had the chance to do the coolest thing ever as they walked down the 18th, and boy did he do it.
Still, Europe had not officially won, they had only retained. That formality was delayed when Ben Griffin held off Rasmus Hojgaard, but was completed when Tyrell Hatton’s stalemate with Colin Morikawa was confirmed on the 18th after a tightly contested affair, where neither player never led by more than one hole, with the match tied from the 13th hole until the end. Hatton’s half point secured an official victory on US soil for Europe, something that seemed an inevitability at one point, but then seemed as far away as ever after the host’s dominant singles performance.
Hatton’s tie secured victory and then a Sam Burns missed putt on the 18th summed up a glum final few moments for the US, as it gave Robert MacIntyre the hole and a half point from the match, making the final score 15-13 to Europe. While the ending to MacIntyre’s match was mainly a formality, his tie meant that any ridiculous claims from the US side of Hovland’s injury resulting in half a point for each side being unfair were void as even if the US got their way, and Harris English was awarded the full point in a match that wasn’t played, Europe would have still won 14.5-13.5.
It was a fiery weekend in New York. The entire European team had to face a lot of stick but they silenced the crowd in the best way possible, with a victory. McIlroy seemingly faced the most abuse, but Lowry may have been a close second so not many would have picked a different player to be the one to secure Europe’s retention of the Ryder Cup, sending home the thousands of American fans who had gathered so much hope throughout Sunday’s singles session, only for it to be snatched away.
It will be a Ryder Cup that will live long in the memory of all golf fans. While Europe may have entered Sunday with a chance to have this weekend remembered as the ‘Bethpage Beatdown’, a 15-13 win on away soil will certainly suffice. It might have been close in the end, but Europe showed that they are still the dominant golfing side, claiming just the third Ryder Cup victory by an away side this millennium, with the USA yet to come out on top on foreign soil since 1993. Europe, however, seem to have no such trouble defeating their old foe in their own backyard.