Europeans retain the Ryder Cup after a scintillating comeback in Sunday singles
No one was expecting the European Ryder Cup team to do something out of the box, especially when they had a deficit of four points, entering the Sunday singles.
However, when it comes to the Ryder Cup, one can expect anything to happen. On Sunday, the scores were 10-6 in favour of the US team.
Therefore, the Americans needed only 4 ½ points to take the title home. Conversely, it was not their time and the Europeans marked one of the best comebacks at the Medinah Country Club by winning 8 of the 12 matches played on the final day.
The very next moment after Martin Kaymer earned the winning point by defeating Steve Stricker, the Europeans started shouting with joy.
“I got to 16 today, and José María told me, ‘We need your point, and I don’t really care how you do it; just deliver,’ ” Kaymer said. “But I like those. That’s very straightforward. That’s the way we Germans are. Fortunately I could handle it”.
At the end of the biennial event, the scores were 14 ½– 13 ½ in favour of the European Ryder Cup team.
“We’re all kind of stunned,” said the US team Captain Davis Love III. “We were playing so well. We just figured it didn’t matter how we sent them out there”.
The victory was a reminder of the heroics of late Seve Ballesteros, who is regarded as a catalyst behind Europe’s rise in the Ryder Cup in the 1980’s.
The European team also paid a tribute to the legendary figure by wearing the blue and white Sunday attire, the one that Ballesteros used to wear in his times.
Moreover, the players also had silhouettes of the 50-time European Tour winner printed on their bags and sleeves.
Ballesteros was also José María Olazábal’s mentor, who gave him the chance of playing in the Ryder Cup for the first time by inviting him to the event. This year, Olazábal was leading the European team as a non-playing captain.
Later, both the players proved to be one of the best pairings in the history of the Ryder Cup.
“José wanted to win it for Seve,” Graeme McDowell of the European team said. “And we wanted to win it for José and Seve”.
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