WHAT should have been a glorious procession turned into this – a big ginger bloke sweating in the intense sunshine.
Shane Lowry didn’t look like the coolest dude at Bethpage Black but somehow the heroic Irishman kept his head and sank the seven-foot putt which retained the Ryder Cup for Europe.
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The former Open champion looked to be genuinely struggling for breath after he had won the 18th hole to secure the precious half-point against Russell Henley which meant Luke Donald’s men had finally reached 14 points.
Lowry had held his nerve in the face of one of the most extraordinary comeback attempts ever seen in golf.
His manic celebrations belied the fact that the Europeans had been in serious danger of suffering the greatest choke in sporting history as a succession of their biggest names fell to defeat.
About half an hour later, Tyrrell Hatton finally won the match for Europe, calmly recording a textbook par on the par-four 18th to claim the critical half against Collin Morikawa.
But how did we even get to such a gut-churning, heart-thumping finale? Why do Ryder Cup Sundays so often put us through the wringer?
What had threatened to be the biggest pummelling in the modern history of the event, turned out to be the tightest Ryder Cup since the Miracle of Medinah in 2012 – won by a single point after a titanic European fightback.
The Americans began the day facing a record seven-point deficit but one by one they scalped the visitors.
Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm – all heroes over the first two days – succumbed as a red tidal wave flooded the giant scoreboards on Long Island.
Matt Fitzpatrick surrendered a five-hole lead and only just managed to scramble a half against Bryson DeChambeau.
Ludvig Aberg was the only European winner of the day, seeing off Patrick Cantlay 2&1, while all of his team-mates were suffering a collective meltdown.
Lowry was one-down going up the 18th but Henley bunkered his tee shot only to recover to within eight feet.
The Irishman managed to nail his approach, just inside of Henley’s and when the American rookie missed, Lowry sank the most nerve-wracking putt of his life.
Hatton, one of the most volatile men in this match, then kept his head to wrap up a narrow victory.
Having tanked so desperately in the foursomes and fourballs, Keegan Bradley’s Americans were boosted by a return to individual combat and began to believe that an impossible dream might come true.
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Fleetwood – who had a perfect four-from-four record on Friday and Saturday – was two-up at the turn against Justin Thomas.
Yet he was defeated on the final green as Thomas sank a 20-foot putt, keeping his cool in the burning heat of an Indian summer’s afternoon on Long Island.
Rose almost swam against the tide as he scrubbed out a three-hole deficit only to lose his opening match on the last green to Cameron Young.
Viktor Hovland had withdrawn with a neck injury, meaning his scheduled match against Harris English was scrubbed with a half-point to each team.
That meant Europe needed just two points to retain the trophy.
And early on, Donald’s men led in each of the top five matches.
The noise on the first tee had been turned down after American MC Heather McMahan had jumped from her role before she was pushed for starting ‘f*** you Rory’ chants on Saturday.
She will presumably turn up next as a White House spokeswoman.
McIlroy was still receiving dog’s abuse as he teed off in his heavyweight scrap with Scottie Scheffler – the world No1 and Open champion against the world No2 and Masters champion.
Scheffler was desperate to avoid becoming the first American player ever to post an 0-5 record at a Ryder Cup.
Both men were running on empty after playing every session of the match – Scheffler desperately out of form and McIlroy having suffered a verbal pounding from the hostile New York crowd.
On the tenth tee, McIlroy pulled back from his tee shot after more heckling, then horribly shanked into a bunker on his way to a disastrous seven, Scheffler winning the hole in bogey to take the lead.
The early blue was being erased from the leaderboard and it was nip-and-tuck across the course.
Somehow, McIlroy roused himself to hole a monster birdie putt on the 11th to square it, screaming with relief.
Yet he bogeyed the short 14th and Scheffler finally managed to claim a victory as McIlroy bunkered his tee shot on the final hole and was unable to salvage the half-point that would have retained the trophy.
The Northern Irishman had taken such a pounding from the galleries that the New York state police and their dogs had been called in to keep the vocal locals zipped as they taunted him about his personal life.
Rose, in the opening match against local hero Young, almost staged an extraordinary comeback.
The Englishman found himself behind a stand at the back of the 13th green, he lost a lengthy argument over a drop between captains Donald and Bradley, but conjured a magic shot around the hazard and popped in a short birdie putt to take the hole.
Then Rose drained a long putt on the 14th, before he squared the match on 16.
Yet after spurning an opportunity on the 17th, he lost a putt-off with Young on the final green – so near and yet so far seemed to be the order of Europe’s afternoon.
Ultimately, it all came down to the big ginger fella – and for Lowry, it was no sweat at all.
Never in doubt.
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