Golf-Better late than never as 18th provides fitting finale

However, Rose, the oldest man on the European team at 43, got out of a fairway bunker and after Homa's putt drifted wide, Rose had a chance. With seemingly every one of the 45,000 crowd crammed around the green, the Englishman nailed the tricky 10 footer to halve the match and give Europe an incredible 6.5-1.5 lead at the end of day one.

The 18th hole at the Marco Simeone club was looking somewhat redundant for much of Friday's opening day of the Ryder Cup but, after five matches finished before reaching it, fans who showed faith were eventually rewarded with a spectacular finale.

All four morning foursomes were done and dusted before reaching the par five 18th, and Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick polished off their afternoon fourball on the 15th. The other three games were all still in the balance, however, and the 18th finally came to the party.

America's heavyweight duo of Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth had been two up after 13. That was brought back to level after the 16th by Tyrrell Hatton and Viktor Hovland so, for the first time in the day, a match marched down the 18th fairway and with everything on the line. The Americans were seemingly in control of the hole until, not for the first time in the day, Hovland sunk a massive putt, forcing Thomas to hole a tricky nine-footer for the tie - which he duly did.

Next came Brooks Koekpa and Scottie Scheffler against Jon Rahm and Nicolai Hojgaard in a match the Americans had not led until winning the 15th hole. Rahm then eagled 16 only for Scheffler to birdie 17 to put the U.S. one up going down the last. Again they looked in pole position, only for Rahm to drain a 30 footer for an incredible second eagle in three holes to tie the match and cue delirium.

The fun wasn't over yet, however. Wyndham Clark and Max Homa were two up with two to play against Justin Rose and Bob McIntyre but Rose won the 17th to take the last game to the very end. When Clark smacked a brilliant drive and the Europeans were wayward, it looked all over. However, Rose, the oldest man on the European team at 43, got out of a fairway bunker and after Homa's putt drifted wide, Rose had a chance.

With seemingly every one of the 45,000 crowd crammed around the green, the Englishman nailed the tricky 10 footer to halve the match and give Europe an incredible 6.5-1.5 lead at the end of day one. Rose exploded in joy, screaming and beating his chest in celebration.

“That was my moment there on the 18th – I’ve made us a lot of points but I haven’t had many moments like that so that was immense," he said. “I'm delighted we got something out of that. Last putt of the day, everyone around. We fought really hard and didn’t want to be only ones to let red get on the board.

"It looked like we they would be leading 3-1 but obviously the boys making putts on 18, then us two down with two to play, so this 18th hole into this setting sun has done us proud."

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