CHASKA, Minn. — This was not eight years in the making. It was two decades.

Two decades worth of frustration was pent up inside the American team room when it arrived to Hazeltine National this week for the 41st Ryder Cup. And two decades worth of relief was released with the force of popping champagne corks when the Americans put the finishing touches on a 17-11 rout of the Europeans Sunday, capturing the Ryder Cup for the first time since 2008 and only the third time since 1999.

After eight losses in the last 10 Ryder Cups, including the last three, the Americans decided enough was enough.

“We got kicked around for so long,’’ U.S. captain Davis Love III said. “You keep losing and you feel like you’ve got to do something different.’’

Massive changes had been made. A “task force’’ was formed with a goal in mind to right all the wrongs that had been supposedly holding back the Americans, who entered the week having won the Ryder Cup only twice since 1993.

The Europeans publicly and privately snickered at the Americans, seeing the task force as an act of desperation. If we’re being honest, they had an arrogance about them when they crowed about how “flattered’’ they were that Americans were “copying’’ their formula for success. The Europeans acted as if they had all the answers.

Well, this week in a suburb about 30 minutes west of the Twin Cities, it was the Americans who had more answers. They took a 9 ½ to 6 ½ lead into Sunday’s 12 singles.

There was not a single player or captain on the U.S. side who had taken victory for granted overnight considering the fact that the Europeans stunned the Americans in 2012 after trailing 10-6 entering the singles.

Certainly not U.S. captain Davis Love III. He was, after all, also the captain of that 2012 team and had felt the sting of that European comeback ever since … until Sunday.

With all the pressure on them, the Americans extended their lead and won 7 ½ of the 12 singles points, extended the lead to a lopsided win — their second-largest margin of victory, behind only 1981, when they won 18½ to 9½.

There were so many elements to the week that made this U.S. victory monumental beyond the fact that for at least these next two years before the Ryder Cup is contested again, in France in 2018, they put an end to the European dominance.

The task force, until further notice, has been validated. So, too, has Phil Mickelson. His public undressing of 2014 captain Tom Watson right after the matches ended in U.S. defeat in Scotland was the catalyst to the changes made.

New stars were born on the U.S. team, too, with Patrick Reed, who was a revelation at Gleneagles as a rookie, taking over as “Captain America.’’ Reed has not won a major championship, but he has asserted himself as the best U.S. Ryder Cupper. He’s now is 6-1-2 in his two Ryder Cups, and he was the top points earner for the Americans this week with a 3-1-1 record.

It was Reed who Love sent out in the opening match against Rory McIlroy in an effort for the U.S. to stave off any early European comeback. And he defeated Europe’s best player 1-up in an utterly scintillating 18 holes of golf in which the two players should have been playing in a steel cage with boxing gloves on, because it was full-contact golf.

“Yeah, it does hurt,’’ McIlroy said. “We would definitely like to be feeling what the Americans are feeling right now. But saying that, they haven’t felt this in awhile.It’s been eight years since they felt this feeling. They deserve their moment. We’ll come back better and stronger in Paris.’’

The clinching point could not have come from a more fitting player, Ryan Moore, who was the 12th and final player selected to the team. Moore, one of two rookies on the U.S. team, did not even arrive to Hazeltine until Monday afternoon. It was his 1-up victory over Lee Westwood that closed out the Euros.

“This is unbelievable right now to actually get the point that clinched it for us, I guess you can say it was fitting,’’ Moore said.

“I’m just so proud of these guys,’’ Love said. “They had a lot of pressure on them for the last two years. I’ve never seen a team come together like a family like this. So much has happened over the last week. Unbelievable golf. The Europeans played just some stunning golf.’’

But, as European captain Darren Clarke put it: “The Americans played better than we did.

“They holed putts when they had to and we lipped out. But that’s happened the other way around for quite some time.’’

Eight long years to be exact.</s>Chaska, Minn. (AP) — Patrick Reed shook his fists with fury for every big putt he made. Phil Mickelson leaped higher than when he won his first Masters. Ryan Moore delivered the final point in this American masterpiece Sunday at the Ryder Cup.

The 17-11 victory over Europe was their biggest rout in 35 years at the Ryder Cup.

Only this was more than just three days of exquisite golf at Hazeltine. This victory began two years ago in Scotland, when Phil Mickelson publicly criticized U.S. captain Tom Watson and a process that he felt put the Americans in position to fail far too often.

“When put in the right environment, the U.S. team brought out some amazing golf,” Mickelson said. “And we’re bringing back the Ryder Cup because of it.”

Sure enough, that 17-inch gold trophy was gleaming on a table, right next to a couple of champagne bottles on ice.

This wasn’t about being maybe the best team ever assembled.

The Americans were a team, and that was all that mattered. For the first time since 1975, every U.S. player won at least one match. And for the first time since 2008, the Ryder Cup is staying in America.

Four years after Davis Love III saw his team blow a 10-6 lead at Medinah, he watched them make more birdies and eagles than he could count as they filled the scoreboard with American red and took any suspense out of the outcome.

“There was a lot of pressure on these guys over the last couple years,” Love said. “We haven’t had a good run lately, and I’m thrilled for them that they got the win. … This team has been questioned and beat up for a long time, and I’m proud of the way they came together.”

Europe, going for its fourth straight victory, never really had a chance.

Reed outdueled and outshouted Rory McIlroy in a match so dynamic that they halved three straight holes with birdies. McIlroy holed a 60-foot putt up the slope on the par-3 eighth and cupped his hand to his ear to a loud an occasionally obnoxious crowd. Reed followed with a 35-foot birdie putt, wagging his finger at McIlroy. They bumped fists and patted each other on the back. McIlroy’s putter went cold, and Reed holed a 7-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to secure the 1-up victory.

Mickelson and Sergio Garcia combined for 19 birdies, eight of them over the last five holes. Mickelson made an 18-foot birdie on the final hole, crouched and then leaped in the air, capping off a big week under more pressure than usual because of his strong voice in all these changes.

One of the changes from the Ryder Cup Task Force that Europe mocked was to spread out the captain’s picks until the very end. The last one went to Moore, who was added to the team only last Sunday. A week later, he was celebrating a 1-up victory over Lee Westwood that clinched the cup.

“You’re only as strong as your 12th man right there,” Brandt Snedeker said to him.

There wasn’t much Europe could do. Thomas Pieters had the best showing of any European rookie by going 4-1. That was a lone bright spot.

“They did everything I asked of them. They tried their hearts out. They worked hard. They fought hard,” European captain Darren Clarke said. “The American Ryder Cup team deserved to win. And we’re all gutted and disappointed. And we will be back stronger to fight in two years’ time in Paris.”

Mickelson already was looking ahead.

He had said the work of the task force — primarily for players and former captains to have more input in an event run by the PGA of America — was not about this year but the next 10 years of the Ryder Cup.

Even so, it was sweet to see that trophy just a few feet away.

“We need to build on this,” Mickelson said. “Otherwise, it’s all for naught. We created a very solid foundation this year. … Yes, it’s great that we had success this week, but it’s not about one year or one Ryder Cup. It’s about a multitude, for decades to come.”

About that time, Love popped the cork off a bottle of champagne.

“That’s my cue to shut up,” Mickelson said.

The Americans stood atop a bridge to the left of the 18th green and sprayed champagne on themselves and the crowd, an enormous gathering that sent endless cheers of “U-S-A” and “Red, white, blue” across Hazeltine for three straight days.

For Europe, Westwood was among four players who ended the week without a point.

The Ryder Cup Task Force was dismantled after Love was named captain for the second time, though Mickelson and Tiger Woods remain on a committee for the next Ryder Cup in 2018 in France. Europe has not lost consecutive Ryder Cups since 1993.</s>Phil Mickelson led the Americans behind the scenes. Patrick Reed powered them with his passion on the golf course. And it was Ryan Moore, the final captain's pick who wasn't even on the team until a week ago Sunday, who delivered the cup-clinching point at Hazeltine.

Moore finished eagle-birdie-par for a 1-up victory over Lee Westwood, and the celebration was on.

"When put in the right environment, the U.S. team brought out some amazing golf," Mickelson said. "And we're bringing back the Ryder Cup because of it."

There was no meltdown like Medinah four years ago, when the Americans blew a 10-6 lead under captain Davis Love III.

Europe never really had a chance.

Reed outdueled and outshouted Rory McIlroy for a 1-up victory, and by then the back end of the scoreboard was filled with American red.

The final score was 17-11, the biggest rout for the United States since 1981. That U.S. team is considered the best team ever assembled with 11 major champions. In a radio interview going into the Ryder Cup, Love was trying to explain that the Americans didn't have to do anything "super human" when he said, "This is the best team maybe ever assembled."

Ultimately, this wasn't about measuring against the past as much as it was building to the future.

The Americans lost for the third straight time in 2014 at Gleneagles, and it was team divided over everything from how the captain was selected to how the team should be built. Mickelson put his image on the line by publicly challenging captain Tom Watson at the closing press conference in Scotland, and he was the strongest voice among five players on a task force that was assembled to figure out why the Americans couldn't seem to win.

Mickelson was under pressure all week and delivered 2 1/2 points, including a halve with Sergio Garcia in which both birdied the final two holes.

"You keep losing, you feel like you have to do something different," said Love, who avoided becoming the first U.S. captain to lose the Ryder Cup twice. "They had a lot of pressure on them for the last two years. And every time we picked a guy, there was more and more pressure on the team and more and more questions. And I'm just proud the way every one of them played. It was a great team effort."

Reed faced the tallest order in the leadoff match with Rory McIlroy, and the quality of golf was as high as it gets. Reed squared the match by driving the fifth green to 8 feet for eagle, and he kept the tee until the 18th. Reed matched McIlroy's birdie on No. 6, McIlroy matched Reed's birdie on No. 7 and the par-3 eighth hole was as sensational as it gets in a Ryder Cup.

McIlroy holed a 60-foot birdie putt, leapt into the air and cupped his hand to his ear, mocking the American crowd to yell even louder. Reed then holed a birdie putt from 35 feet, charging the crowd before turning to wag his finger at McIlroy. They bumped fists and patted each other on the back, both 5 under through eight holes.

Their standard of gold dipped after that, perhaps because they spent so much energy pumping fists, and Reed finally took his first lead when McIlroy bogeyed the 12th hole. McIlroy's putter went cold, and Reed closed him out with a 7-foot birdie on the 18th.

Mickelson made 10 birdies, and Garcia made nine birdies against no bogeys in their match.

Among the lone bright spots for Europe was Thomas Pieters, the Belgian rookie who had the best debut of any European rookie by going 4-1. He took down J.B. Holmes in the third match, right after Henrik Stenson dismantled Jordan Spieth. By then, it was ominous.

There would be no comeback like Medinah. There would be no celebrating for Europe, which it had done eight of the last 10 times.

The Americans stood atop a bridge to the left of the 18th green and sprayed champagne on themselves and the crowd, an enormous gathering that sent endless cheers of "U-S-A" and "Red, white, blue" across Hazeltine for three straight days.

For Europe, Westwood was among four players who ended the week without a point.

The Ryder Cup Task Force was dismantled after Love was named captain for the second time, though Mickelson and Tiger Woods remain on a committee for the next Ryder Cup in 2018 in France. Europe has not lost consecutive Ryder Cups since 1993.</s>The United States topped the Europeans 17-11 to reclaim the Ryder Cup Sunday afternoon at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, MN. It was the widest margin of victory for the U.S. since it won by nine points in 1981. The winning point was delivered by Ryan Moore, who wasn't a member of the team until last Sunday evening, when U.S. Captain Davis Love III selected him with his final captain's pick.

The victory vindicated the Task Force the U.S. assembled in an attempt to end recent European domination. Europe had won seven of the previous nine cups. The next Ryder Cup will be played in 2018 at Le Golf National in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France.</s>The American Ryder Cup team celebrates after defeating Europe 17-11 at Hazeltine on Sunday. Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson lead fans in a chant before various players uncork bottles of champagne in celebration. It marks the first time since 2008 that the United States has won the Ryder Cup
• Ryder Cup 2016: USA sweep to victory as Rory McIlroy and Europe taste defeat</s>Degenerating into a trash-talking drunkard-fest isn’t one of them.

Yes, Saturday’s Ryder Cup at Hazeltine featured some straight-up jags. Guys (and they were all guys) saying stuff you just shouldn’t say in public. Even at a pro wrestling match.

Maybe these were otherwise nice guys were acting like jerks because that’s how they get when they drink or hang out with their otherwise nice-guy pals. I don’t know. I never quite caught up to any. Because there weren’t many. And they generally hid behind the throngs and shouted from the back, cheap shots from the cheap seats.

Sometimes the hecklers weren’t insulting, but they were Noonan!-ing. I wish that was fine in golf. If a guy can drill two free throws with 40,000 people screaming and waiving foam noodles behind his target, he ought to be able to drill a 2-foot putt amid some noise.

But since hushed galleries are the norm in golf, the odd shriek — and apparently even cell phone beep or camera shutter — can distract a golfer and change the final destination of a little white ball. Or so they say. Fine.

But rhetorical ridicule and backswing blurts are different from several thousand fans — all of whom came to cheer for their team to win — cheering when something happens that helps their team win.

Like Rory McIlroy plunking his ball in the water. If you’re a USA! chanting fan and you’re not psyched when your nemesis puts one in the drink, you’re probably lying to yourself.

Yet this offends some people. Golf people. Who believe that you should only cheer good play, because the only way you want to win is by playing great, not merely better than your opponent.
• Gophers ask for support after coach Jay Johnson’s father dies
• Ryder Cup cell phone police out in force at Hazeltine
• Gophers coach Tracy Claeys stands up for game after hit on Penn State kicker
• Brian Murphy: Saturday’s high drama at Ryder Cup sets up Hollywood finish on Sunday

How quaint. Kind of like golf is quaint to legions of Americans who never understood the game or its Miss Manners demands, which forget that golf is a game best played fun. Sucking the fun out of golf is a great way to continue golf’s steady decline in popularity.

Besides, with his bowing and chest-thumping, McIlroy himself is bringing a fistful of WWF into the Ryder Cup.

Which is why it’s so fun.</s>CHASKA, Minn. — This wasn’t about being maybe the best team ever assembled. The Americans were simply a team, and they finally won back the Ryder Cup.

Phil Mickelson led the Americans behind the scenes. Patrick Reed powered them with his passion on the golf course. And it was Ryan Moore, the final captain’s pick who wasn’t even on the team until a week ago Sunday, who delivered the cup-clinching point at Hazeltine.

Moore finished eagle-birdie-par for a 1-up victory over Lee Westwood, and the celebration was on.

“When put in the right environment, the U.S. team brought out some amazing golf,” Mickelson said. “And we’re bringing back the Ryder Cup because of it.”

There was no meltdown like Medinah four years ago, when the Americans blew a 10-6 lead under captain Davis Love III.

Europe never really had a chance.

Reed outdueled and outshouted Rory McIlroy for a 1-up victory, and by then the back end of the scoreboard was filled with American red.

The final score was 17-11, the biggest rout for the United States since 1981. That U.S. team is considered the best team ever assembled with 11 major champions. In a radio interview going into the Ryder Cup, Love was trying to explain that the Americans didn’t have to do anything “super human” when he said, “This is the best team maybe ever assembled.”

Ultimately, this wasn’t about measuring against the past as much as it was building to the future.

The Americans lost for the third straight time in 2014 at Gleneagles, and it was team divided over everything from how the captain was selected to how the team should be built. Mickelson put his image on the line by publicly challenging captain Tom Watson at the closing press conference in Scotland, and he was the strongest voice among five players on a task force that was assembled to figure out why the Americans couldn’t seem to win.

Mickelson was under pressure all week and delivered 2 1/2 points, including a halve with Sergio Garcia in which both birdied the final two holes.

“You keep losing, you feel like you have to do something different,” said Love, who avoided becoming the first U.S. captain to lose the Ryder Cup twice. “They had a lot of pressure on them for the last two years. And every time we picked a guy, there was more and more pressure on the team and more and more questions. And I’m just proud the way every one of them played. It was a great team effort.”

Reed faced the tallest order in the leadoff match with Rory McIlroy, and the quality of golf was as high as it gets. Reed squared the match by driving the fifth green to 8 feet for eagle, and he kept the tee until the 18th. Reed matched McIlroy’s birdie on No. 6, McIlroy matched Reed’s birdie on No. 7 and the par-3 eighth hole was as sensational as it gets in a Ryder Cup.

McIlroy holed a 60-foot birdie putt, leapt into the air and cupped his hand to his ear, mocking the American crowd to yell even louder. Reed then holed a birdie putt from 35 feet, charging the crowd before turning to wag his finger at McIlroy. They bumped fists and patted each other on the back, both 5 under through eight holes.

Their standard of gold dipped after that, perhaps because they spent so much energy pumping fists, and Reed finally took his first lead when McIlroy bogeyed the 12th hole. McIlroy’s putter went cold, and Reed closed him out with a 7-foot birdie on the 18th.

Mickelson made 10 birdies, and Garcia made nine birdies against no bogeys in their match.

Among the lone bright spots for Europe was Thomas Pieters, the Belgian rookie who had the best debut of any European rookie by going 4-1. He took down J.B. Holmes in the third match, right after Henrik Stenson dismantled Jordan Spieth. By then, it was ominous.

There would be no comeback like Medinah. There would be no celebrating for Europe, which it had done eight of the last 10 times.

The Americans stood atop a bridge to the left of the 18th green and sprayed champagne on themselves and the crowd, an enormous gathering that sent endless cheers of “U-S-A” and “Red, white, blue” across Hazeltine for three straight days.

For Europe, Westwood was among four players who ended the week without a point.

The Ryder Cup Task Force was dismantled after Love was named captain for the second time, though Mickelson and Tiger Woods remain on a committee for the next Ryder Cup in 2018 in France. Europe has not lost consecutive Ryder Cups since 1993.

Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, United States, def. Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, Europe, 3 and 2.

Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler, United States, def. Rory McIlroy and Andy Sullivan, Europe, 1 up.

Jimmy Walker and Zach Johnson, United States, def. Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer, Europe, 4 and 2.

Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar, United States, def. Thomas Pieters and Lee Westwood, 5 and 4.

Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, Europe, def. Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, United States, 5 and 4.

Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrera Bello, Europe, def. J.B. Holmes and Ryan Moore, United States, 3 and 2.

Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka, United States, def. Martin Kaymer and Danny Willett, Europe, 5 and 4.

Rory McIlroy and Thomas Pieters, Europe, def. Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar, United States, 3 and 2.

Rory McIlroy and Thomas Pieters, Europe, def. Rickie Fowler and Phil Mickelson, United States, 4 and 2.

Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka, United States, def. Henrik Stenson and Matt Fitzpatrick, Europe, 3 and 2.

Justin Rose and Chris Wood, Europe, def. Jimmy Walker and Zach Johnson, United States, 1 up.

Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrera Bello, Europe, halved with Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth, United States.

Rory McIlroy and Thomas Pieters, Europe, def. Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, United States, 3 and 1.

J.B. Holmes and Ryan Moore, United States, def. Danny Willett and Lee Westwood, Europe, 1 up.

Phil Mickelson and Matt Kuchar, United States, def. Martin Kaymer and Sergio Garcia, Europe, 2 and 1.

Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth, United States, def. Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, Europe, 2 and 1.</s>BY the time you’re reading this on Sunday morning, we will be into the final day of this year’s Ryder Cup, the closest thing golf has to a World Cup.

Personally, if we’re losing, I’ll be praying for a Sunday like the Miracle at Medinah in 2012, when a supercharged Ian Poulter, roaring like a bull that’s been shot full of steroids, ignited the European team, inspiring them to overhaul an unthinkable 10-6 deficit in order to win 14 ½ to 13 ½ at the end of the day.

The equivalent in tennis would be a player two sets down and losing the third set five games to one coming back to win the match in a fifth set tie-break.

It was a victory I watched in tears at the time and which can still bring me close to the verge of blubbing four years on.
• I didn’t watch game shows, I wanted to party with Joe Strummer and a unicorn, but BBC losing Bake Off leaves a bitter taste

Interest in golf is never higher than during the Ryder Cup. (This might be because it is the closest golf – the loneliest and most individual of sports – gets to the team euphoria of something like football.

Perhaps this is the reason a self-confessed football fan like Poulter flourishes in the Ryder Cup setting.)

Oh, and by the way, if you’re a Trump fan watching the Ryder Cup, remember that he’s a known and furious golf cheat. If you’re a Leave-voting Nigel Farage fan supporting the European team, I suggest you have a word with yourself. Or simply get a friend to punch you in the face.

My father taught me to play the game when I was five, back in the 70s, at the height of Nicklaus, Player and Trevino. Although I’ve never attained the lofty heights at the game he did – playing off scratch in his prime – I love golf with a deep, fevered passion.

Sadly, however, many others do not feel this way. If you tell the average kid in their teens or 20s today that you’re into golf, you might as well be saying to them “I love fox hunting” or “I’m really into bear-baiting”. It seems an old fusty sport from a bygone era.
• Where have all the good clubs gone, asks John Niven

The Tiger Woods -influenced golf boom among young people has faded away like the game of the man who inspired it and, away from the fervour of the Ryder Cup, my beloved sport is in troubled times.

Participation rates in golf are declining around the world. In the UK, the number of active players fell from an estimated 890,000 in 2005 to 740,000 in 2015. The number of 16 to 25-year-olds taking up the sport fell by a quarter in the same period.

In America, where half the world’s golf is played, it’s no less drastic. There are six million fewer active players there than a decade ago.

I think there are various reasons for this. Golf is an expensive sport. A round takes a long time compared to other sports. It also takes a while to become competent at the game.

Golf clubs do not help themselves with their image: witness the 

 shameful decision of Muirfield earlier this year to still refuse 

 admission to female members.

Some of the reasons golf is waning are also social and have happened for entirely laudable reasons.

Back in my dad’s era, men would think nothing of playing two rounds of golf every weekend, then hanging out in the clubhouse for a few hours afterwards – drinking and gossiping and dissecting their rounds shot by shot while their wives were at home with the children and the dinner staying warm in the oven. Let’s be honest – no guy’s getting away with that nonsense in this day and age.

Most clubhouses I poke my head into these days are empty except for a few old boys whose kids are probably in their 50s. The guys my age who have played their rounds are straight into the car and home to take their turn at the childcare or the cooking. And rightly so.
• Profit-crazed vultures are preying on Scotland's poorest citizens says John Niven

While no right-thinking person wants a return to the Victorian 

 values of the 70s, it saddens me to see golf in decline.

For one thing, it teaches you something few other sports do. In a world of football where the motto seems to be “foul as much as you like if you can get away with it”, golf promotes scrupulous honesty. It is a sport where players call penalties upon themselves.

Even during the fevered patriotism of the Ryder Cup, golf rarely approaches the hostilities seen at the average football match.

Yes, in a world of Trumps and Farages, golf’s vanishing values of sportsmanship and honesty really do seem like relics of a bygone era. I’ll miss them.</s>CHASKA, Minnesota (Reuters) - Ryan Moore ended a long wait for U.S. Ryder Cup redemption when he clinched a rousing win over Europe at Hazeltine on Sunday, beating Lee Westwood to allow the Americans to reclaim the golden trophy in golf's top team competition.

With Westwood in for bogey at the 18th, Moore rolled his birdie putt to within one foot and the tap-in was conceded to seal a 1-up win and clinch a 15-10 lead for the United States, with 14 1/2 points required for their victory.

Team mates, families and friends poured out onto the green to celebrate what ended as a 17-11 thumping.

Emotional U.S. assistant captain Bubba Watson wept on the shoulder of captain Davis Love III as the two hugged on the 18th green.

"I'm super proud of them," Love said. "We all pulled together for this one.

"We've been kicked around for so long, if you keep on losing you feel you've got to do something different," he said about changes the U.S. team made to increase continuity in the team hierarchy and allow more input from the players.

"Our guys handled the pressure. Europe came in and played unbelievable golf. The great thing is we didn't battle between all of us, we all pulled together."

The Americans had last won the biennial match play event in 2008 as Europe ran off three Cup victories in a row, extending their domination to eight of the last 10 meetings.

"At the end of the day, the American guys played better than we did," said European captain Darren Clarke. "They holed the putts when they had to, and we lipped out. But that's happened the other way around for quite some time."

Brandt Snedeker, who registered a 3-0 record, set Moore up for the winning point by claiming a 3 and 1 victory over English rookie Andy Sullivan.

On a brilliantly sunny day, the U.S. side capitalized on their greater depth to close out victory as they faced four of Europe's six rookies in the late matches, winning all of them.

The U.S. victory charge came after some titanic early matches in which Europe, who front-loaded their best players at the top of the order, closed the gap to one point after entering the deciding 12 singles matches trailing by three.

Sensational shot-making and scoring made for great theater in front of some 50,000 roaring fans.

Patrick Reed and Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, the hottest players and most demonstrative competitors on their respective teams, staged an outrageous contest of can-you-top-this in their opening nine.

Reed's 1-up win gave him a U.S.-leading 3.5 points from his five matches.

Later in the day, Cup veterans Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia waged an epic battle, with 19 birdies between them.

After a rousing finish in which the Spaniard closed with four birdies in a row and Mickelson birdied four of the last five holes, they appropriately ended up all square.

Henrik Stenson and rookies Thomas Pieters and Rafa Cabrera-Bello closed the gap for Europe, narrowing the U.S. lead to 10 1/2 to 9 1/2, but the Americans held a big edge in the later matches.

Sweden's Stenson beat Jordan Spieth, Pieters of Belgium topped JB Holmes and Spain's Cabrera-Bello defeated PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker -- all by 3 and 2.

The 24-year-old Pieters set a European rookie record by registering four points and became the first Ryder debutant since 1999 to play in all five sessions.

Reed and McIlroy set the tone for a brilliant day of golf, with the eighth hole producing an outstanding Ryder moment.

McIlroy rolled in a long birdie bomb and roared in delight, playing to the suddenly silenced crowd by putting his hand to his ear and shouting, "I can't hear you, I can't hear you," in extravagant fashion.

Reed then matched McIlroy by pouring in his 20-foot birdie putt to an explosive celebration by the crowd, and wagged his finger at McIlroy and waved his arms to whoop up even louder cheers.

As he walked off the green, Reed was met by a smiling McIlroy, who bumped fists with his rival in a classic Ryder Cup tableau.</s>CHASKA, Minn. — His shirt soaked from spraying champagne in a rare Ryder Cup victory, Phil Mickelson already was looking ahead at how to win the next one.

Not only was this a scene from Sunday at Hazeltine, it was eight years ago at Valhalla.

Paul Azinger was in charge of sweeping changes for the U.S. team. He demanded a new qualifying system based on PGA Tour earnings instead of the archaic method of awarding points for top 10s. He doubled the number of captain’s picks to four players. He broke up his 12 players into three pods based largely on personalities.

It worked so well – a 16½-11½ victory over Europe in 2008 – that when someone asked Azinger if he’d like to do it again, Mickelson didn’t give him a chance to answer.

“Zinger in 2010,” Mickelson said that day.

It didn’t happen. For too many years, the PGA of America treated the Ryder Cup captaincy as a lifetime achievement award. It would be wrong to assume the Americans immediately embarked on another losing streak because of the captain. They lost in Wales because they failed to win any of the six matches in the final team session and never caught up. That’s just bad golf. It happens.

Mickelson, however, picked up on something at Valhalla.

That was his point when he publicly criticized the authoritative style of Tom Watson during that awkward news conference at Gleneagles in 2014 after a third consecutive U.S. loss, its eighth dating to 1995.

Mickelson wondered why the Americans got away from player input that worked so beautifully under Azinger in 2008 and worked every year in the Presidents Cup.

“I have been a part of 10 successful Presidents Cups and eight losing Ryder Cups,” he said Sunday during the first of several celebrations. “And it’s very easy to see what the difference is. When put in the right environment, the U.S. team brought out some of their most amazing golf. We’re bringing home the Ryder Cup because of it.”

There were snickers all week that Love wasn’t even the captain. This was as much Mickelson’s team, because it was Mickelson who risked his public image at Gleneagles by calling out Watson, a revered figure in golf, even though his message was aimed at the PGA of America.

Tiger Woods was on that Ryder Cup Task Force geared toward getting players more involved and had strongest influence of any of the five assistants. Steve Stricker was another assistant captain. He will be the captain of the Presidents Cup team next year that will feature many of the same players.

This is what Mickelson wanted in 2008. This is what the Americans have to do now if they want to catch up to Europe.

The series now stands at 26-13-2 in favor of the United States, though that includes too many lean years when Britain was rebuilding from World War II. The modern Ryder Cup dates to 1979 when continental Europe was invited, and Europe has a 10-8-1 advantage since then.

Mickelson had said the success of the task force could not be measured by results at Hazeltine. This was not about the next Ryder Cup but the next 10 of them.

He knew all along that wasn’t the case, which is why the pressure he faced – not to mention the rest of the Americans – was greater than ever.

“The pressure started when some dumbass opened his mouth two years ago in the media center,” Mickelson said, self-deprecating in his moment of glory.

The pressure doesn’t go away.

It was a relief to win, but the Americans haven’t won back to back in the Ryder Cup since 1993, the year Jordan Spieth was born.

It’s not about who’s the next captain. It could be Mickelson, Stricker, Woods or Jim Furyk. It doesn’t matter if the final captain’s pick is five days before the matches begin or if all four are made at the same time.

What matters — what Europe has had all these years — is that players feel as much a part of the process as the people running the Ryder Cup.

“We need to build on this. Otherwise, it’s all for naught,” Mickelson said. “Yes, it’s great that we had success this week. But it’s not about one year or one Ryder Cup. It’s about a multitude, for decades to come.”

Timing is everything, and such was the case Sunday night. Love reached for a bottle of champagne as Mickelson spoke and popped the cork. The sound made Mickelson stop, and he looked over at Love with a smile.

“That’s my cue to shut up,” Mickelson said.

It was time for an American celebration in the Ryder Cup, and one could sense the strong belief they wouldn’t have to wait eight years for another one.
In golf, the United States wins the Ryder Cup for the first time since 2008.