What looked certain to be a comfortable Team Europe win unexpectedly turned into a thrilling Ryder Cup finale as they withstood a ferocious challenge from Team United States to capture golf’s biggest team prize in a nail-biting 15-13 victory.

Europe, a close-knit team that had done everything right for two days at Long Island’s Bethpage Black, needed two points from the 11 singles matches that were played on Sunday to retain the Ryder Cup, but the Americans made them sweat it out until the bitter end.

“It’s got to be the most stressful 12 hours of my life,” said Europe’s Luke Donald, the first captain to win back-to-back editions of the biennial event since Tony Jacklin in the 1980s. “We knew they’d be tough; we didn’t think they’d be this tough.”

It was not until the eighth match of th

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