Often times a winning formula in sports is simply getting the ball in your best player's hands and getting out of the way.
That's effectively what Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, and Viktor Hovland delivered for the European Ryder Cup Team at Marco Simone in its 16½-11½ win, with the triumvirate nearly beating the U.S. team on their own, earning 10½ points with a dominant 9-2-3 combined record over 14 sessions.
"I'm just so happy for these 12 guys, they gave everything this week," Team Europe Captain Luke Donald said. "They were a pleasure to be around. They made my life very easy and they played like superstars."
Donald kept his superstars interspersed throughout his pairings with the trio playing with five other European teammates but never together during team sessions. That proved effective from the first session, as Donald played all three during foursomes, resulting in a 4-0 historic sweep, the first time Team Europe went undefeated Friday morning in Ryder Cup history. The first two groups, Hovland and Rookie Ludvig Åberg alongside Rahm and Tyrell Hatton, won with convincing 4&3 victories. McIlroy, partnered with Tommy Fleetwood, had the closest match with a 2&1 victory after the Irishman knocked it close on the par-3 17th to set up a match-winning birdie for his teammate.
"Obviously playing with Rory is a dream for anybody, and I was the one that got to do that this morning," Fleetwood said.
The trio balanced moments of their star power taking over with being a pillar of support for teammates. Matt Fitzpatrick, partnered with McIlroy in Friday afternoon four-ball, took off with five birdies or better from the second through sixth to put Team Europe 5 UP. As Fitzpatrick's barrage slowed, McIlroy cleaned up the match, winning the 15th hole to deliver a 5&3 victory. Nicolai Højgaard played alongside Rahm, winning three holes for Team Europe on the front nine. Rahm took over in crunch time, closing with eagles on the 16th and 18th to tie the match against World Number One Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka.
Hovland, paired with Tyrell Hatton, dropped a crucial 21-footer for birdie on the 18th in Friday afternoon four-ball to earn a 1/2 point, starting a run of three matches flipped from late U.S. Team leads to ties. Hovland turned around Saturday morning alongside Ludvig Åberg to a blowout 9&7 foursomes win against a struggling Scheffler/Koepka pairing, who shot six-over par through 11 holes.
"It's an unbelievable time for me to be here to play alongside one of the best players in the world in Viktor and to be playing against other world-class players," Åberg said.
In just how dominant the star trio was this week, they didn't lose the 18th hole until the final Saturday afternoon four-ball match, with Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark winning 1 UP against McIlroy and Fitzpatrick.
Donald continued trusting his stars in Sunday singles, sending the trio out over the first four matches as Team Europe needing four points to win the Ryder Cup Sunday. The stars put plenty of blue on the board, earning 2 1/2 points, putting the team on the cusp of victory. Rahm in the opening match set a tone by forcing back a tie after being 1 DOWN with three to play by birdieing the 18th, well aware of the stakes of his potential 1/2 point as leaderboards loomed over the last green.
"I think I did a really good job at the end," Rahm said. "Seeing those scores, refocused at the task at hand. Played good at end. Too bad it wasn't good enough to win but I'll take a halve."
The shining European stars served as a stark contrast to the top three Americans in the OWGR, as Scottie Scheffler (first), Patrick Cantlay (fifth), and Xander Schauffele (sixth) earned four points with a combined 3-7-2 record. Finding how American stars can succeed will be part of the U.S. team's diagnosis as they aim to win the Ryder Cup back on home soil at Bethpage Black in 2025.
