It would be a lie if we said there was something in the air yesterday morning, something that would help dictate a European comeback so grand they would take eight and a half points from a possible 12.
It would be a lie because the script had already been written on the back of two days of breathtaking American team play. Whatever Europe did over the latter stages of Friday and throughout two thirds of Saturday, it was never enough. They were out. Buried and beaten. The better side was in front and there could be little or no complaint.
But by 7.30pm local time on Sunday evening as the cold Chicago air set in over Medinah, it was the same old story: 12 men, battered, bewildered and bereft of energy, sitting shoulder to shoulder as the world's media quizzed them endlessly on a Ryder Cup defeat but, more tellingly, how they let slip the biggest US margin heading into the singles since 1981.
On a day that started with the world's best player forgetting what time zone he was in, Europe arrived mob-handed; the momentum swing on the previous day's evening - when they had claimed the last two points in the fourballs - allowed Olazabal's players to open their shoulders.
It meant that, Kaymer, out of form and seemingly out of favour, had to hold firm on the last to gain the point needed that would keep the cup in Europe's hands. He executed his plans perfectly, on a perfect day for European golf.
