Team Europe celebrated their Ryder Cup victory over Team USA with a loud and boozy party on their bus as golfers Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton were seen partying late into the night. Europe claimed a dramatic 16.5-11.5 victory at the Marco Simone Country Club in Rome on Sunday to regain the trophy and extend the USA’s wait for an away win, and they wasted no time in making it a night to remember on the outskirts of the Italian capital.
McIlroy and Viktor Hovland won their singles matches and Jon Rahm tied with Scottie Scheffler to complete an unbeaten campaign. But Tommy Fleetwood scored the winning point against Rickie Fowler to ensure Europe would regain the trophy and extend Team USA’s wait for an away victory, despite a late fightback.
It had been an emotional weekend where tempers threatened to boil over between the two teams, centering around an extraordinary row in the car park between McIlroy and USA caddy Joe LaCava.
But the bad blood from that had been washed away, at least from Europe’s side, as they sang in chorus with their partners and with drinks in hand to make it a boozy affair on board the team bus.
Footage uploaded to the official Ryder Cup Europe Instagram account showed several clips of the jubilant golfers and their team belting out renditions of I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers, We Are the Champions by Queen.
They also had time to rub salt into the wound for USA, singing ‘USA is terrified’ to the tune of Freed from Desire by Gala on the team bus.
Team captain Luke Donald, after his inspirational speech at the weekend, could be seen leading the chants. Some golfers were pictured with beer bottles in their hands and McIlroy even sipped from the golden chalice itself as they savoured their success, while others guzzled champagne straight from the bottle.
In one photo that surfaced, Hatton was seen wearing a Team Europe shirt with the Team Europe logo emblazoned all over it and a pair of flashing neon sunglasses, with a bottle of Peroni beer in hand.
Envious fans posted messages claiming they ‘wanted to be on that bus’ as Europe’s heroes were led out of the venue by police escort and back to to hotel, where the celebrations continued until the early hours.
McIlroy, 34, had previously said he was the ‘angriest he’s ever been’ in his career, but the former world No 1 looked sapped of any bad blood as he was all smiles, dancing and chanting the night away.
And if LaCava’s cap-waving exploits were meant to get under McIlroy’s skin on the green, it had the opposite effect of firing him and his team-mates up even more to win the trophy.
