Ryder Cup lead bigger than Luke Donald expected

Europe captain Luke Donald admitted the Ryder Cup is going better than he could have imagined as his side are on the verge of a famous victory.

Donald’s side have thrashed the United States in the opening two days at Bethpage Black and take a record 11.5-4.5 lead into the final day, needing just two and a half points from 12 singles matches on Sunday to retain the title they won in Rome two years ago.

The Europeans took six points from a possible eight on Saturday as they followed up a 3-1 morning victory in the foursomes with another one in the afternoon fourballs to move decisively towards a first away victory since ‘the Miracle of Medinah’ in 2012.

This has been more like the bulldozing of Bethpage as Europe have dominated in a manner Donald only dreamed about.

“I said it at the beginning of week, we came here to try and win, to try and create history,” he said.

“We know it was going to be a very difficult task, looking at past Ryder Cups, away Ryder Cups.

“Three of the last four haven’t been very close.”

He continued: “You know, I didn’t expect to have as big a lead like this. A lot of things have gone well for us.

“But I’m very happy with how strong our team is, the firepower they have, the intensity. We have an anti-fragile mentality.

“Things got tougher out there, and it fired them up even more.

“They were able to get better through those difficult moments out there.

“That is what makes me most proud as a captain, just their ability to take the punches and come back even stronger.”

It would take a record-breaking collapse from Europe for them not to win on Sunday, but Donald is keen to impress his men are not over the finish line yet.

“We love to do things that haven’t been done before, and we’ve achieved quite a few things this week already,” he said.

“But the goal for me is still, we’re close to the finish line, but we still have a long way to go.

“These guys are very aware of what the difficult environment is going to be like.

“So we’re excited for the challenge, but our goal will be to win the session.”