TIGER Woods, who was a remarkable 10 under par for his round, admitted: "I did hit the ball well today.

"Francesco went two up after two, but I just felt I had to be patient.’’ A crowd of just over 35,000 was witnessing another dramatic day in the Ryder Cup's history, and virtually all the attention was now on McDowell, Wales Open winner on the same course four months ago.

Fowler holed a superb 20-foot putt on 17, his third birdie in a row, to go one down with one to play against Edoardo Molinari.

And Mickelson, like Woods, hitting his best form on the final day, defeated Hanson 4&2 to leave the overall scoreline 13-12 in Europe's favour.

Mickelson, who won his first Ryder Cup singles match for 11 years, said: "We've had a lot of fun as a team. We have a lot of quality individuals, and we've fought hard today.’’