Fleetwood Mac take Europe back to Number One

ROME : Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy combined to share a name and the glory as the former earned the lifetime honour of "securing" the Ryder Cup and the latter did more than anyone to win it by claiming four points from his five matches.

To the thousands of fans who flocked to Rome this week, "Fleetwood Mac" was an irresistible portmanteau as the pair teamed up to win both their foursomes matches, with McIlroy also winning in fourballs alongside Matt Fitzpatrick.

McIlroy, Europe's most experienced Ryder Cup player having now appeared in seven editions, had his mentality tested after his run-in with the American team after the only blip on his weekend - a last-hole fourballs defeat with Fitzpatrick against Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark on Saturday.

But he was back to his laser-eyed best in Sunday's singles, racing to a two-hole lead over Sam Burns, stretching it to four before triumphing 3&1 after a typically dominant display.

"I was very focused. I let it fuel me," McIlroy said of the incident when he was annoyed by a celebrating caddie standing on his putting line.

"It all gave us a little bit of a fire in our bellies to try

and get the job done today."

2021 TEARS

McIlroy was in tears after Europe were blown away by the U.S. two years ago.

"It means an awful lot," he said. "I was so disappointed after Whistling Straits. We all were. And we wanted to come here and redeem ourselves a bit. I just knew that I needed to put in a better performance for my team mates and thankfully I was able to do that."

With only four points needed for victory, an early burst of European wins suggested Fleetwood's match against Rickie Fowler, the penultimate one, would be something of an afterthought.

However, as the Americans fought back and