Staked to the largest lead in history, Rory McIlroy’s Europe fully expected to win the Ryder Cup. The surprise was how much emotion poured out of the team on a final day that produced an American charge and, ultimately, another Irish hero.

Shane Lowry, who endured so much abuse from a hostile and vulgar New York crowd, had the last word. He holed a 6-foot birdie putt against Russell Henley to earn the half-point Europe needed to keep that 17-inch gold chalice.