The Americans entered Sunday with a seemingly insurmountable lead, but could only watch as the Europeans rumbled from behind for a historic victory.
The U.S. team had a four-point lead heading into Sunday's singles matches, but the Europeans overcame the deficit to pull a historic victory 14½-13½ at the Medinah Country Club. Only once in the history of the event has either team come back from that far down to win the Cup.
"This one is for all of Europe," Jose Maria Olazabal said to the Associated Press. "Seve will always be present with this team. He was a big factor for this event for the European side, and last night when we were having that meeting, I think the boys understood that believing was the most important thing. And I think they did."
Tiger Woods missed a short putt on the 18th hole and then conceded par to Francesco Molinari to halve their match. The extra half-point made gave a clear-cut win for Europe, 14½-13½. The Ryder Cup has a strange set of rules, which almost allowed for a tie, which would have kept the Cup with the European team, but not with a victory.
Martin Kaymer had already holed the par putt that gave the Europeans the comeback, but if Woods won the match, it would have ended in a 14-14 tie.
"I thought about giving him the half in the fairway [on the hole], but then the captain [Jose Maria Olazabal] was there; they told me, it's not the same, winning or halving, so get focused and do your best," Molinari said to ESPN.com. "And that's what I did. So I basically just tried to win the hole, to win the tournament, basically."
Woods lipped his putt and then conceded to Molinari, giving the Europeans the win.
"You come here as a team, you win or lose as a team," said Woods. "And it's pointless to even finish. ... I've been out there twice when that's happened, and it's a tough spot to be in because you know you've got to finish out the match, even though it's useless because our team didn't get the Cup and they did. So 18 was just, hey, get this over with, congratulations to the European team, they played fantastic today and they deserve the Cup."
Woods did not have a great Cup performance, going 0-3-1 and to see his Ryder record drop to 13-17-3.
The day almost began with controversy for the Europeans after Rory McIlroy almost missed his tee time. He showed up late after thinking his match was at 12:25 p.m. and only arrived in time because of a police escort. If he had showed up too late, he would have been disqualified.
McIlroy showed the tardiness didn't matter, hitting numerous birdies to beat Keegan Bradley for his first loss. McIlroy along with Europe's other top four players all won on Sunday, including Justin Rose.
Rose almost list to Phil Mickelson, but was able to convert on a 12-foot par putt that halved the 16th hole. He then made a 35-foot birdie putt to win the 17th and closed out the 18th with another birdie putt.
Of the 12 matched on Sunday, six went to 18 holes. The difference for the Americans was that they only won one of those. The last team to rally from a four-point deficit was the U.S. in 1999.
U.S. captain Davis Love III became the first American to sit each player at least once before the final day, but the plan backfired in the end.
The plan worked the first two days," he said. "It just didn't work today."
On Sunday the only points won were by Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson and Jason Dufner.
"We're all kind of stunned," Love said. "We know what it feels like now from the '99 Ryder Cup. It's a little bit shocking. We were playing so well, we figured it didn't matter how we sent them out there. We got a couple of matches flipped there in the middle that cost us."
McIlroy played great, but his timing blunder might have cost the Europeans before they even got started. Luckily, he made it on time.
"It's my own fault," McIlroy said. "If I let down these 11 other boys and vice captains and captains this week, I would never forgive myself. I'm just obviously happy to get the point and help the cause out a little bit today."
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