Lowry's amateur caddy and proud Offaly men savour emotional Ryder Cup win

There was a real Offaly flavour at Bethpage in New York on Sunday evening as Europe recorded a sensational win over the USA in the Ryder Cup.

After an extraordinarily acrimonious couple of days with the behaviour of some American spectators sickening sports fans all over the world, Clara's Shane Lowry secured his place in immortality by sinking the decisive putt to ensure that Europe would retain the Ryder Cup – Robert MacIntrye and Tyrrell Hatton followed up with half points to secure a 15-13 win.

Having stormed into a seemingly unassailable position in the Friday and Saturday fourballs and foursomes, it threatened to unravel spectacularly for Europe in Sunday's singles as USA stormed back into contention.

With Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood unlucky to lose out to birdies on the 18^th, Jon Rahm beaten early and a sea of red on the scoreboard, Europe were in peril of a disastrous loss. Rory McIlroy went down to Scottie Scheffler and while Matt Fitzpatrick salvaged a point off Bryson DeChambeau, it added to the impending sense of gloom as he had led by five holes at one stage.

Ludvig Aberg lifted some of the storm clouds with a 2 and 1 win over Patrick Cantlay, leaving Europe needing a half point to retain the Cup – a point would have guaranteed a draw match on 14 points each and Europe would have retained it as holders.

There were enough players level or in contention coming down the back 9 for Europe to manage that but it was unbelievably delicately balanced and the tension and anxiety was palpable. Shane Lowry joined the pantheon of Irish Ryder Cup heroes as he came from two down after fourteen holes to get that crucial half point.

He won the 15^th to go one down against Russell Henley and there were heart warming scenes of unbridled joy when he snatched a half with a sensational birdie on the 18^th – sinking a putt from a few feet after Henley had just missed from a bit further away. There were fantastic images as Lowry did a jig of joy on the 18^th and embraced team mates before showing raw emotion when interviewed moments later.

"That was the hardest couple of hours of my whole life. Honestly, I can't believe that putt went in. I stood over it going 'this is it'. I said to Darren walking down 18, I have the chance to do the coolest thing of my life here. The Ryder Cup means everything to me. I've won The Open in Ireland. It was amazing. It was a dream come true but the Ryder Cup for me is everything

“To do that out there today on the 18th green in front of everyone. It was so hard out there. Fair play to the US lads, we knew they were going to come out fighting,” an almost overwhelmed Lowry said.

Among the people he hugged on the 18th green was his delighted father Brendan Lowry and sister Sinead. There were also poignant scenes out of camera shot as other Offaly people at the famous New York course had their own celebration.

The presence of Lowry's fellow Clara man, David Reynolds was an especially poignant one. A former Offaly footballer, Reynolds was in great form as Offaly won the Leinster Senior Football Championship in 1997, scoring regularly from frees and play. He also achieved further prominence as Shane Lowry's caddy during most of his amateur career.

A capable low handicap golfer himself, Reynolds played out of Esker Hills and he was Lowry's caddy when his life changed when he won the Irish Open as an amateur in 2009. Lowry turned professional within days of the remarkable triumph and Reynolds stayed as his caddy for his early events on the European Tour. It couldn't and didn't work out at that level and Lowry soon engaged a professional caddy, going onto world fame and capturing some of golf's biggest prizes – he has won a major, the British Open but talked about the Ryder Cup being even bigger for him than that on Sunday evening.

Reynolds returned to normal living and has spent most of his time in New York since then – he had spent time there earlier before moving over on a more permanent basis.

Fans in Offaly jerseys cheering on Shane Lowry in Bethpage.

A very good footballer from a great footballing family, his uncle Willie Nolan was the captain and goalkeeper on the Offaly side that lost to Down in the 1961 All-Ireland senior football final – another uncle Peter Nolan emigrated to New York in 1960, missing out on the 1960 and '61 Leinster senior football title wins but is regarded as one of the county's greatest players.

Reynolds won Senior Football Championship medals with Clara in 1991 and 1993 and his last game for Offaly was in 1997 as New York called him after that. His presence at the Ryder Cup was an evocative one as he met Brendan Lowry, one of Offaly's great footballers and an All-Ireland senior football medal winner in 1982. The affable Clara man was home for a spell during the summer and this week was particularly special as he is still recovering from a bad accident in New York a couple of years ago.

His company at Bethpage included two more Offaly exiles in New York, Danny Leavy and Enda Condron. Rhode man Leavy played minor, U21 and senior football for Offaly in the late 1980s, early 1990s but emigrated to New York at that stage and has been there, more or less, since then, marrying a fellow Rhode exile Anne Glennon and rearing their family there – they lived in a real Offaly enclave in Yonkers, up past the Bronx, for years before moving to Manhattan.

Rahan man Enda Condron also emigrated to New York in the 1990s, establishing a successful business. A decent hurler and footballer with St Carthage's, Condron was a big loss to his club and the newly amalgamated Shamrocks when he emigrated. Both men have been involved in the Offaly Association in New York and Offaly teams there and their pride in their home county and parish has always burned brightly.

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With so many Offaly people living in New York, there were many others at the Ryder Cup and a few Offaly jerseys were spotted over the few days. There was a lot of joy among the outnumbered European fans over the three days but none could have matched the pride and excitement of the Offaly contingent as they watched one of their own, and a fellow passionate GAA fan, play such an important role in a great win.