FRANCESCO MOLINARI secured the winning point as Europe thrashed the United States to regain the Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in Paris.
Resuming 10-6 up, Europe won the Singles session 7½-4½ to complete a comfortable home win.
It did not matter that the Americans could boast a total of 31 majors to the Europeans' eight - or that Europe were fielding five rookies.
In fact, each of the 12 Europe players made some contribution to the victory - none of them returned home without having won at least one of their matches.
Open champion Molinari was in particularly fine fettle, and he formed an unbreakable and unbeaten partnership with Tommy Fleetwood before a 4&2 win over Phil Mickelson in the Singles, which proved to be the tipping point.
Indeed, the Italian became the first ever European player to finish a Ryder Cup with a perfect record from five matches.
And only three Americans, Gardner Dickinson, Arnold Palmer and Larry Nelson, had achieved the feat previously - although Ian Poulter did win four out of four during the Miracle of Medinah in 2012.
Europe captain Thomas Bjørn had opted for experience in his wildcard picks - and his selection of Sergio Garcia was an especially inspired choice.
The Spaniard had endured a tough year off the tee - but won two of his three matches in fourballs and foursomes before beating Rickie Fowler 2&1 in the Singles.
Garcia's career total in the Ryder Cup now stands at 25½ points - which is more than any other player in history.
By contrast, the American wildcard picks, with the honourable exception of Tony Finau, were utterly dreadful.
Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau lost all nine matches in which they were involved - and so Mickelson and Woods respectively completed their fifth and sixth Ryder Cup campaigns in Europe without a single victory.
It still remains the case then that the United States last won the trophy in an away contest back in 1993, the year President Bill Clinton was first inaugurated.
And the wait will now gone on until 2022 when the teams meet at the Marco Simone Club in Rome.
Yet, after the first session of fourballs on Friday, it had all looked so good for the United States.
Led by world number one Dustin Johnson and his partner Fowler - who beat Rory McIlroy and Thorbjørn Olesen 4&2 - the Americans picked up each of the first three points on offer.
Europe only avoided the whitewash as Molinari and Fleetwood gave a first sign of what was to come with a 3&1 beating of Woods and Patrick Reed.
Still, at that point, there were few signs of what was to come in the Friday afternoon foursomes.
For, what transpired was a first whitewash by Europe of the United States in a session for 29 years.
Molinari and Fleetwood - by this time dubbed MoliWood - led the charge with a 5&4 victory over Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, and that margin was also enjoyed by Garcia and Alex Norén over Mickelson and DeChambeau.
Meanwhile, Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson beat Johnson and Fowler 3&2, and McIlroy and Poulter recovered from losing two of the first three holes to beat Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson.
The Americans then had much to ponder heading into the Saturday morning fourballs - but, once again, Europe dominated proceedings, taking each of the first three matches.
Garcia and McIlroy beat Brooks Koepka and Finau 2&1, Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton (3&2) beat Johnson and Fowler while Molinari and Fleetwood (4&3) were at it again against Woods and Reed.
Remarkably, Europe had won eight matches in a row to go from 3-0 down to 8-3 up. It was a blue wave which simply suffocated the Americans.
In the end, the visitors were thankful that it did not get any worse as Thomas and Spieth held out against Poulter and Jon Rahm to reduce the arrears to 8-4 heading into the afternoon foursomes.
The handsome lead allowed Europe to be satisfied with a split session - which is exactly what happened.
Molinari and Fleetwood (5&4) beat DeChambeau and, yet again, Woods - while Rose and Stenson (3&2) had too much Johnson and Koepka.
The 10-6 overnight score left the United States firmly in Medinah territory and left the Americans with no choice other than to put their best hopes at the top of the order in the Singles.
In fairness to American captain Jim Furyk, it was one of the few things which worked for him this weekend as the United States took three-and-a-half points from the first four completed matches.
Suddenly, Europe's advantage had been reduced to a single point and things were beginning to feel just a little bit twitchy.
But Bjørn's men had plenty in reserve down the order. Indeed, each of the next six completed matches went in the Europeans' favour as Olsen (5&4), Rahm (2&1), and Poulter (2up) beat Spieth, Woods and Johnson to put Europe on the brink.
Actually, at this point, Stenson, Garcia and Molinari all had dormie leads, thus guaranteeing a Europe win.
It was only a matter of time and a matter of which of those three players would hole the winning putt.
Somewhat bizarrely, it ended up being none of them as Mickelson summed up his entire tournament by conceding his match against Molinari on the par-three 16th after finding the water off the tee.
Stenson (5&4) and Garcia also completed their victories to make it 16½-9½ and Europe would ultimately better the Americans' score at Hazeltine two years ago when Norén won 1up against DeChambeau in a battle of the rookies.
Reed had, in the meantime, pushed the United States score into double figures but the crowds in Paris greeted his classless shushing celebration following his meaningless 3&2 win over Hatton with the derision which it deserved.
It has already emerged in the latest American fallout that Spieth refused to play alongside Reed - but it is difficult really to put too much blame on Spieth for that.
At least Reed has conceded that the European camaraderie - which extended, off the course, to a WhatsApp group - was better than that of the Americans.
Importantly, Europe's spirit gave Bjørn plenty of options when mixing and matching his pairs - though he also quickly realised Molinari and Fleetwood had struck up such a good partnership that they had become inseparable.
But, if there was a star of the European team, it was 35-year-old Open champion Molinari - and so he can provide the closing words of this write-up.
"So much more than majors, more than anything," Molinari said when asked what the winning moment meant.
And that, in just a few words, is why the Ryder Cup is the greatest golf tournament in the world.
FULL RESULTS
| EUROPE | 17½ | 10½ | UNITED STATES | ||
| Fourballs (Fri) | Justin Rose Jon Rahm | 1up | Brooks Koepka Tony Finau | ||
| Rory McIlroy Thorbjørn Olesen | 4&2 | Dustin Johnson Rickie Fowler | |||
| Paul Casey Tyrrell Hatton | 1up | Jordan Spieth Justin Thomas | |||
| Francesco Molinari Tommy Fleetwood | 3&1 | Patrick Reed Tiger Woods | |||
| Foursomes (Fri) | Henrik Stenson Justin Rose | 3&2 | Dustin Johnson Rickie Fowler | ||
| Ian Poulter Rory McIlroy | 4&2 | Bubba Watson Webb Simpson | |||
| Sergio Garcia Alex Norén | 5&4 | Phil Mickelson Bryson DeChambeau | |||
| Francesco Molinari Tommy Fleetwood | 5&4 | Justin Thomas Jordan Spieth | |||
| Fourballs (Sat) | Sergio Garcia Rory McIlory | 2&1 | Brooks Koepka Tony Finau | ||
| Paul Casey Tyrrell Hatton | 3&2 | Dustin Johnson Rickie Fowler | |||
| Francesco Molinari Tommy Fleetwood | 4&3 | Patrick Reed Tiger Woods | |||
| Ian Poulter Jon Rahm | 2&1 | Justin Thomas Jordan Spieth | |||
| Foursomes (Sat) | Henrik Stenson Justin Rose | 2&1 | Brooks Koepka Tony Finau | ||
| Sergio Garcia Alex Norén | 3&2 | Dustin Johnson Rickie Fowler | |||
| Francesco Molinari Tommy Fleetwood | 5&4 | Patrick Reed Tiger Woods | |||
| Ian Poulter Rory McIlroy | 4&3 | Justin Thomas Jordan Spieth | |||
| Singles (Sun) | Rory McIlroy | 1up | Justin Thomas | ||
| Paul Casey | A/S | Brooks Koepka | |||
| Justin Rose | 3&2 | Webb Simpson | |||
| Jon Rahm | 2&1 | Tiger Woods | |||
| Tommy Fleetwood | 6&4 | Tony Finau | |||
| Ian Poulter | 2up | Dustin Johnson | |||
| Thorbjørn Olesen | 5&4 | Jordan Spieth | |||
| Sergio Garcia | 2&1 | Rickie Fowler | |||
| Francesco Molinari | 4&2 | Phil Mickelson | |||
| Tyrrell Hatton | 3&2 | Patrick Reed | |||
| Henrik Stenson | 5&4 | Bubba Watson | |||
| Alex Norén | 1up | Bryson DeChambeau |
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