The simple basics of it: McIlroy and Lowry won 2-up, putting a ravenous, brilliant Europe into double figures. But with the honour from nine feet, Lowry holed his tying birdie three and powered a clenched fist almost clean through his own chest. On the penultimate 17th, a splendid amphitheatre of a par 3, Lowry reached deep within himself and found there was still more in there. Instead, another jaw-dropping Lowry iron was the decisive blow on the final hole, this one again into just five feet. It could have been a fitting footnote to it all but it wasn't because McIlroy and Lowry carried on regardless.