However after sterling match wins by Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Paul Lawrie, the job was looking a bit closer to possible.One man in need of definite recognition is Ian Poulter - he is the definition of the modern Ryder Cup. So passionate and inspiringly emotional, he bagged 100% of his points from the games he played, holing many long putts and rallying the Europeans to no end. Celebrating every magnificent shot with a fist bump and a roar, his passion infectious throughout his team. He was also the only player on Team Europe to not concede any points. Let's hope he can keep up his emphatic form and come through and win a major or two.
Another exciting game was Sergio Garcia's narrow win over ever consistent Jim Furyk. Watching this game I found myself getting ever annoyed with how many greens and fairways Furyk hits, and how docile he was about it all (second only to Dufner, who's facial expressions suggested he didn't know where he was). The loopy-swinged veteran bore down on fan favourite Garcia, and often seemed to have the beating of him. With some uncharacteristic errors from Furyk, Garcia was handed the win on the 17th green.
Soon the score was 13-13 with two games left to finish, both at all square; Kaymer/Stricker and Molinari/Woods. Stricker, who's putting had been rocky all weekend, managed to pull off a few unlikely long putts to take the game to the end. Kaymer had only feature in one of the previous 4 matches over the weekend and looked uncertain. Suddenly he had a put for the championship, and thoughts immediately reverted back to fellow countryman Bernhard Langer's 1991 missed putt for the championship. But no such woe, Kaymer hit the ball true and it hit the centre of the cup at pace, sealing the championship at 14-13 to Europe with one match left to finish (A draw was enough for Europe to retain.Now here comes the painful part for the remaining match. Francesco Molinari and Tiger Woods had to finish their game, knowing that it was inconsequential and that they were missing out on the start of the Team Europe's celebrations. I feel for the pair, who had to wait a good fifteen minutes to play their approach shots to the green, knowing that Tiger could only try and halve the championship by winning his match.
Once they got to the green, they had to similar length putts to halve the hole, though Tiger had one shot in hand and putted to secure the match and the final point. He missed the putt and then to the world's surprise, Woods gave Molinari his not entirely unmissable three foot putt to half that match in the most sporting gesture in recent years. This secured a win - not just a half- for the Europeans at 14.5-13.5.
This sentimental sporting act may have got the one time world number one up in the world's estimations, but he was blasted by the bookies, who lost millions on paying out winning bets. Apparently no one bets on a draw for the championship, and a 14-14 finish would have upped the profits massively for many betting companies.
Woods said: "I went one up at 17, and I asked what was going on down at 18 because my responsibility was to be able to get my point.
“Then they said that Europe has a chance to win on this hole, or retain the Cup.
"Then after that all went down, my putt was useless. It was inconsequential. So I hit it too quick and gave him his putt and it was already over."
A special mention has to go to one of the most loveable characters in golf and the captain of the European team, Jose Maria Olazabal. He rallied his team with motivational speeches, and moved the record breaking television audience with a breathtaking emotional toast to former playing partner, the late Seve Ballasteros.
No more Ryder Cup for another two years, but plenty of exciting golf in between. Two years for Donald, Westwood and Poulter to get some major championship wins under their belts and battle to retain the cup in Scotland in 2014.
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