I'm one of the reasons we lost Ryder Cup: Woods

A despondent Tiger Woods admitted that he "was a contributing factor" as to why the United States surrendered the Ryder Cup to Europe, after losing all four of his matches at Le Golf National.

The US were cutting back on a 10-6 deficit yesterday, but Europe then clinched an insurmountable 14½-9½, after Francesco Molinari defeated five-time Major winner Phil Mickelson 4 and 2. Europe eventually won 17½-10½.

Woods suffered only his second singles defeat in the match-play showdown with a 2 and 1 loss to Jon Rahm as Europe charged to victory.

His miserable Ryder Cup record now stands at 13 wins, 21 losses and three halves.

"It's disappointing because I went 0-4, and that's four points to the European team," admitted Woods. "I'm one of the contributing factors to why we lost the Cup, and it's not a lot of fun.

"It's frustrating because we came here, I thought we were all playing pretty well, and I just didn't perform at the level that I had been playing, and just got behind early in the matches and never got back."

The former world No. 1 headed to Paris in high spirits after winning his first title since 2013 at the Tour Championship last week.

But it all went badly wrong, losing twice in the fourballs alongside Patrick Reed and once in the foursomes with Bryson DeChambeau - all defeats coming at the hands of Tommy Fleetwood and Molinari.

Rahm's triumph came after Thorbjorn Olesen, in the seventh match to tee off, powered to an impressive 5 and 4 win over the in-form Jordan Spieth to quell the US team's momentum.

After Ian Poulter's dramatic 2-up win against world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, Molinari ensured a crushing triumph for Europe by defeating Mickelson for an insurmountable 14½-9½ lead in the biennial team showdown.

Molinari said: "It's amazing. It's an incredible achievement. We did just an amazing job."

The 35-year-old Italian - who had been winless in six prior Ryder Cup matches - has become the first European and only the fourth player ever to win all five of his matches. - AFP