Europe suffered their biggest Ryder Cup defeat for 27 years at Valhalla - and for one player in particular it was not just the margin of defeat which was hard to take.
Lee Westwood hit out at the ‘shameful’ abuse hurled at him in Louisville after the United States completed a 16 1/2 to 11 1/2 victory - their first since 1999 and biggest winning margin since 1981.
After his defeat to Ben Curtis in Sunday's singles, which came after the contest had already been settled with the home side winning the five and a half points they needed from the first eight matches, Westwood said: ‘That's the only negative part of the week for me.
‘I have been abused from start to finish. Some of the stuff that's been said to me this week is shameful. To me that's not golf.’
Westwood did not want to repeat some of the abuse but did reveal one was a ‘particularly nasty reference to my mother’ and that his parents had also been woken by a phone call at 4.30am on Sunday.
He added: ‘They were trying to ring me but called the wrong hotel and got the wrong Westwood.
‘It really upset my dad's preparations for walking around the course!’
Trailing since the opening morning and 9-7 down going into the final day's singles, European captain Nick Faldo saw his gamble of leaving Ian Poulter, Westwood and Padraig Harrington until the last three singles matches backfire.
Paul Azinger's side secured the five and a half points they needed from the first eight matches with Jim Furyk securing the winning point by beating Miguel Angel Jimenez 2&1.
Faldo sent out Sergio Garcia in the opening match but the off-form Spaniard ran into a brilliant
Anthony Kim and lost 5&4, while Paul Casey birdied the 18th to halve with Hunter Mahan in match two.
Robert Karlsson and Justin Rose then comfortably beat Justin Leonard and Phil Mickelson respectively to give Europe hope, but Kenny Perry beat Henrik Stenson 3&2 and Boo
Weekley was seven under after 10 holes on his way to beating Oliver Wilson 4&2.
That made Soren Hansen's match with JB Holmes crucial and Holmes delighted his home crowd with a brilliant finish, making birdies at the 14th, 16th and 17th to win 2&1 and leave Furyk in the match behind to seal victory.
Faldo said: ‘I'm so proud of my 12 guys.
‘We have come up short but not in pride and spirit. We can have a straight back and chin up. We did our best but America this week were just a little better.
‘Congratulations to Paul and his team. Their shot-making and putting has been unbelievable so you have to give them credit for that. We were marginally outplayed in different areas.
‘We've come up maybe one guy short. It could have been different if we had got into those last four guys but we took that risk. It's been an awesome week. We should still celebrate.
‘I wanted it to be a great experience and everyone has given their all and we should be proud.’
