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Ryder Cup 2018 Leaderboard: Europe Tops USA for 4th Time in Last 5 Tournaments

Gianni Verschueren

Europe reclaimed the Ryder Cup on Sunday at Le Golf National in Paris, converting their 10-6 lead heading into singles into a 17.5-10.5 win.

Francesco Molinari claimed the winning point with a 4 and 2 victory over Phil Mickelson, making history in the process:

Ryder Cup USA congratulated their opponents and shared video of the wild celebrations on the final hole:

Team Europe wins the #RyderCup. Congratulations to Captain Bjorn, and the entire European Team. pic.twitter.com/S4E6BsIrLG

— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) September 30, 2018

Here is a look at the final leaderboard:

As explained by Golf.com's Dylan Dethier, players receive no prize money for participating in the Ryder Cup. Instead, some of the profits go to charities, and the European participants receive gifts from their captain.

The Americans had predictably front-loaded the schedule for the final singles matches and got 2.5 points out of the first three contests Sunday, as Justin Thomas and Webb Simpson beat Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose, respectively.

Simpson's win over the consistent Rose stood out, although it perhaps shouldn't have come as a surprise after the year he's had:

But while many American fans believed the comeback was on, things fell apart after the great start. Brooks Koepka halved his match against Paul Casey, and Tiger Woods continued his poor run at Le Golf National with a 2 and 1 loss against Jon Rahm.

Woods joined an exclusive club by claiming zero points from four tries:

Tony Finau demolished the in-form Tommy Fleetwood 6 and 4, but Thorbjorn Olesen did the same to Jordan Spieth 5 and 4, putting the European team on the brink of victory. At the time, only one American player—Patrick Reed—held a lead.

Many were shocked Olesen had it so easy against the talented Spieth, who has struggled in this format:

Molinari and Henrik Stenson held big leads over Mickelson and Bubba Watson, with just two more points needed to bring the title back to Europe. Ian Poulter put the team within one with a 2-up win over world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, while Stenson went dormie on the 13th. Molinari and Sergio Garcia soon followed suit, and the question turned to who would earn the win.

It was Molinari, the standout player throughout the tournament.

Garcia also held on and made some Ryder Cup history of his own:

Reed grabbed a point for the Americans against Tyrrell Hatton, while Alex Noren put the final point on the board with a win over Bryson DeChambeau.

Europe have now won seven of the last nine Ryder Cups.

   

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