Euro stars salute cool McDowell

GRAEME McDOWELL may have kept stressing that it was a team effort, winning back the Ryder Cup for Europe, but his team-mates were having none of it last night as the celebrations got under way at Celtic Manor.

Luke Donald was a rock for Colin Montgomerie’s team with three points from a possible four to improve his overall Ryder Cup record to played 11, won eight, lost two, halved one. Yet the Englishman paid tribute to his Irish team-mate for keeping his composure in his deciding singles match against Hunter Mahan.

“I think as a team, you could see things slipping away a little bit,” Donald said, “but we had great faith in Graeme. I mean, he’s proven himself over this year, especially as a major champion. He can get it done when he needed to and hat’s off to Graeme for holding on and playing great golf down the stretch and winning that point when he needed it.”