Scotland’s Paul Lawrie described helping Europe to a dramatic Ryder Cup victory as “awesome”.

The Scot won his singles match against Brandt Snedeker 5&3 on an incredible day at Medinah.
“It feels pretty awesome, to be fair,” Lawrie told.

“I’m proud of every person in the team and pretty proud of myself to go out and perform like that under the utmost pressure against a tough crowd.”
The United States required only four-and-a-half points from the 12 on offer, but the Europeans secured eight and a half to clinch a historic 14½-13½ win.

Bookies were counting the cost of Europe’s Ryder Cup victory after a stunning final-day comeback was rounded off by a remarkable gesture of sportsmanship by America’s Tiger Woods.

Jose Maria Olazabal’s side recorded a 14½ to 13½ outright win in Medinah, Illinois, following a string of heroic performances by the likes of Luke Donald, Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy.

They played their part in ensuring Europe retained the trophy they won two years ago, but it was Woods who handed them outright victory in the final match of the tournament.

By beating Francesco Molinari in the final pairing of the weekend he could have at least ensured a 14-14 draw for the USA.

He led going in to the final hole, but missed a three-foot par putt. And in a show of sportsmanship, he declined to force Molinari to make a putt from a similar distance, thus conceding the hole to the Italian and leaving their match all-square.

The gesture handed Europe an outright win that few would have predicted at the start of the day, leaving the European fans cheering – and the bookies fuming after they saw a flurry of bets placed from the optimistic few who did fancy the unlikely result.

The betting firms today admitted they were facing a combined multi-million payout in what was their most expensive ever Ryder Cup, despite the fact that just moments earlier they had been looking at their ideal result of a draw.

The unlikely comeback cost Ladbrokes £650,000 and Coral £400,000, while other bookmakers also reported heavy losses. Two punters even bet £500,000 on Europe to win as the odds fell last night.

A Ladbrokes spokesman told MailOnline today: ‘No-one bets on a tie. It cost us just over £650,000 last night on Tiger’s miss. Tiger is not a bookie’s friend this morning.

‘At 8:20pm, Europe were 33/1 to win and USA were 1/50. It was a nightmare result. The USA were heavily backed pre-tournament. We were so close. It was our most expensive one ever.’

Europe’s team staged a remarkable comeback to retain the Ryder Cup, battling from 10-6 down overnight – having trailed 10-4 – to beat the United States 14½ to 13½ in Chicago, Illinois.

After Europe reached the 14 points they required to retain the cup, Woods knew heading to the 18th tee that the USA could no longer win. He later claimed neither he nor the USA wanted to salvage a tie.

After Woods missed his final putt, he conceded one from a similar length to halve his contest with Molinari – a putt which he would have been expected to hold.

A Sky Bet spokesman told : ‘While it was impossible not to get caught up in such a fantastic victory, Woods’s miss resulted in us taking a really heavy beating.

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