Even after Tyrell Hatton’s big moment, the feeling of tension that had settled into the Marco Simone Golf Club on Sunday remained. There was an underlying nervousness that the European majority of the more than 40,000 people at the facility felt. You could feel it in the looks at the scoreboards, in the cheers of relief and in the collective sigh of relief from the crowd at American failures, which, however, were now rare in this arena of the best players in the world.
Hatton almost sensationally holed his shot from the sand bunker on the 16th hole, but he also won his match against Brian Harman and scored a point for Europe to 14:7. With seven matches still remaining, the Europeans only needed another half point to win. What a comfortable situation – but despite all the joy about the Englishman’s victory, the scoreboard showed so many red tiles that the nervousness wouldn’t subside.
Red is the color of the Americans at the Ryder Cup. It had hardly been visible for two days, but now a wave was rolling in, with dots appearing in quick succession. Less than half an hour later it was only 14:10. But there was also Tommy Fleetwood on the tee. Once his ball bounced on the green, then it stayed there, and because his opponent Rickie Fowler shot his shot into the water hazard, it was soon clear that the red wave would break, that the nervousness would give way to relief, that spectators would now be in theirs Euphoria was able to jump into the lake where Fowler’s ball had just flown in.
“Tommy stole my big moment,” jokes Sepp Straka when he finds out that his colleague Fleetwood has already holed the victory
Europe won the Ryder Cup, for the seventh time in a row on home soil and in the end even more clearly than anyone could have expected: the final score after all matches was 16.5:11.5.
“There was a moment today when it suddenly became pretty close,” said Irishman Shane Lowry, who played in the group ahead of Fleetwood and was relieved to realize on the final hole that he was now allowed to lose his match. The same applied to the Austrian Sepp Straka, who also suffered a narrow defeat against Justin Thomas. The news of the European victory reached him on the green at the 18th hole, when it was also important for him to get the last half point. “Tommy stole my big moment,” Straka said jokingly at the press conference afterwards.
In an interview with the SZ, he seemed a little more serious: “I was aware all day that it could happen to me, that I could deliver the decisive point.” It’s a special atmosphere, also for the players at the Ryder Cup, who don’t just have to concentrate on their own shots: “You have to look at everyone, not just yourself. There are TVs everywhere here, so you can see a lot of things ” said Straka, completely wet from the splashed champagne.
Austrian with Ryder Cup: Sepp Straka (right next to Tyrrell Hatton).
(Photo: Phil Noble/Reuters)
The fact that it didn’t flow earlier was also due to the Americans. Captain Zach Johnson’s team had gradually worked its way into the Ryder Cup, after a disastrous start on Friday and a questionable finish on Saturday afternoon. In the individual cases it was noticeable that the individual quality in the USA is a bit stronger. All twelve players are ranked in the top 25 of the world rankings, but given their performances on Friday and Saturday, one forgot that this US team actually traveled to Rome with the mindset of being unbeatable. After the 19-9 landslide win at home in Whistling Straits two years earlier, the stage seemed set for a new dominance in the Ryder Cup – but it remains a team competition in an individual sport, so it has its own dynamics.
“We’re a team. We’re one. That’s why we’re so good,” Lowry said. It all sounded pathetic, between the champagne celebration and the award ceremony in the Roman sunset. And in a way, the difference in mentality between Europe and the USA is also a very banal explanation for the complex undertaking of winning such a competition. However: It was noticeable all week long. Subliminally, just like the nervousness during the hours on Sunday, one could notice in many small gestures how comfortable the Europeans felt in one of the places of origin of their culture in Italy.
Once, before a match, the Spaniard Jon Rahm put his arm around his playing partner Hatton’s shoulder, the Americans stood there like tin soldiers, each for themselves. Rahm found the right words to explain the victory. It is “the ability (…) to forget who you are outside of this week, what you have done or what you will do afterwards” – and to form a unity.