10 Reasons Why Europe Won The 2023 Ryder Cup

After Team USA's record 19-9 victory at Whistling Straits two years ago, it was predicted that America would dominate the Ryder Cup for years to come. 

However, Europe won the trophy back at the earliest possible opportunity with an emphatic win in Rome, which rarely looked in doubt from the moment Luke Donald's side raced into a 4-0 lead in the opening session. 

Here, we take a look at how and why the Europeans were so successful at Marco Simone in Italy as Zach Johnson's visitors were blown away in a 16.5-11.5 defeat. 

Foursomes Dominance

Donald elected to kick off Friday's opening session with foursomes, which traditionally plays to European strengths.

It worked, too, enabling the hosts to storm into a 4-0 lead as Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg, Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka and Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood all won.

They followed that up with another three points from Saturday's foursomes, too, which included the 9&7 destruction of Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka by Hovland and Aberg, to give the Europeans a 7-1 win from the two sessions.

STAR PLAYERS PERFORMED

In order to overturn Europe's humiliating defeat in America two years ago, Donald needed his in-form, highest-profile players to deliver, with World No.2 McIlroy, World No.3 Rahm and World No.4 Hovland contributing 4, 3 and 3.5 points respectively.

Overall, there's no doubt Europe's senior stars led from the front, including on Sunday when they were out early and soon got blue on the board.

DOMINATED FIRST HOLE

Donald placed great emphasis on a "fast start" in matches, which enabled Europe to dominate the first hole at Marco Simone, a 407-yard uphill par four.

Justin Rose even revealed Europe's players often put $100 dollars on the hole in practice to sharpen their intensity, and it clearly did the trick. In the 28 Ryder Cup matches played in Italy, Europe won the first hole 10 times, halved it 14 times, and lost it on only four occasions. 

MADE HOME ADVANTAGE COUNT

The US were searching for their first win across the Atlantic since 1993 at the Belfry and the wait will now stretch until at least 2027 when the competition heads to Ireland.

Despite both teams making scouting missions to Marco Simone to play the course in the weeks before, only Europe's players seemed at ease with the course, where they received plenty of vocal support. 

Some of the players had experience of the course from the Italian Open, too, and one of them, Robert MacIntrye, won the tournament at the venue in 2022. In contrast, the USA players didn't have the luxury of that added experience, which can't have helped their challenge.

DONALD'S CAPTAINCY

When Johnson named his side for the opening foursomes in a pre-match press conference, he was often caught out by two-part questions, which left him scratching his head. However, his counterpart Donald seemed very well prepared and unflappable.

Despite being parachuted in to take charge just last year as a replacement for the sacked Henrik Stenson, composed Donald looked as if he had been in the job since day one, and it's clear the players loved him, so much so that the Englishman now has a lot of support for another tenure.

Donald clearly left no stone unturned in his preparations either, and goes down as one of Europe's very best captains.

RORY'S ROW ADDED 'FUEL'

McIlroy and the European team were furious on Saturday when Patrick Cantlay's caddie Joe LaCava took off his cap and waved it in the air after Cantlay made a vital putt on the 18th in the last fourball match, which the US eventually won.

LaCava's actions were considered poor sportsmanship, particularly as the Northern Irishman still had a putt to tie the match. Tensions then spilled over onto the car park, with McIlroy heard shouting: "This can’t happen, this can’t happen – it’s a f****** disgrace" at another caddie, Jim "Bones" Mackay.

McIlroy admitted: "I let it fuel me and gave us a little bit of a fire in our bellies to try and get the job done." 

It certainly fired up the home crowd on Sunday, too, as the Europeans got over the line with room to spare.

USA DOGGED BY RUMOURS OF SPLITS

Patrick Cantlay proved himself to be one of Team USA's grittiest performers, but he was dogged by rumours that he was leading a split in a "fractured" US team over the lack of pay for its players.

Xander Schauffele's father also told The Times that there was a dispute over a participation and benefit agreement contract in the weeks leading up to the match, particularly over whether Netflix should have access to the US locker room, which the players would not have benefitted from financially.

Within the report on the alleged fracture was also the suggestion that Cantlay and his friend Schauffele were using a separate area of the locker room, and while Cantlay dismissed the report as "complete lies" and "totally unfounded," it became a persistent talking point in the last two days, which would have been an unwanted distraction for a team already facing a daunting task to retain the trophy. 

COURSE SETUP TO FAVOUR EUROPE

Europe put the statistical expertise of vice-captain Edoardo Molinari to excellent use to analyse where the hosts might have an advantage over America.

His data showed the Europeans were more accurate from 200-240 yards, with the USA the more accurate from 140 yards in.

As a result, a number of holes were altered to take wedges out of American hands by either making some par 4s drivable, like the fifth,11th and 16th, or making some par 3s longer, including the 203-yard seventh.

THE FANS

Europe's home supporters definitely made their presence felt in a total attendance of 250,000 after the Ryder Cup Europe's first-ever ticketing ballot system was oversubscribed sevenfold.

The grandstands included 5,000 seats by the first tee alone as fans brought an intensity and passion to the course that home players fed off as the likes of Justin Rose celebrated successful putts with glee, while players and vice-captains whipped up the atmosphere throughout.

TEAM USA ABSENTEES

Europe managed to cope without ageing LIV Golf players like Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia, but the USA seemingly missed big hitters like Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, who were overlooked for a wildcard pick.

That was despite Johnson winning all five of his matches at the last Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits and DeChambeau producing some excellent recent form, including an astonishing 58 on his way to winning the LIV Golf Greenbrier tournament, before following that up with another hugely impressive win on the circuit in Chicago.