Hero Cup: Continental Europe beat Great Britain and Ireland to win inaugural tournament

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Adrian Meronk of Continental Europe is congratulated by Luke Donald
Adrian Meronk was congratulated by Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald for claiming the winning point at the Hero Cup

Continental Europe claimed victory in the inaugural Hero Cup after extending their lead over Great Britain and Ireland to four points on Sunday.

Tommy Fleetwood’s Great Britain and Ireland side trailed by two points heading into the final day at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

But Europe won six of the final 10 singles matches to triumph 14½-10½.

Poland’s Adrian Meronk holed the decisive putt in his one up victory over Englishman Callum Shinkwin.

“We obviously came here to win and wanted to do it for each other,” Fleetwood told Sky Sports.

“The first thing I said at the start of the week was ‘your team-mates don’t remember if you play bad, miss a putt or lose a point’.

“But everybody remembers if you don’t give 100% and I couldn’t have asked for any more from anybody this week.”

Captain Francesco Molinari started off strongly for Continental Europe as he recorded a 3&2 win over Irishman Shane Lowry.

But it was Great Britain and Ireland who put points on the board next as Fleetwood beat Belgian Thomas Pieters 3&2 and Tyrrell Hatton thumped France’s Antoine Rozner 5&4.

However, Europe asserted their dominance with Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard beating Seamus Power one up, while Frenchman Victor Perez was too strong for England’s Jordan Smith in a 4&2 success and Austrian Sepp Straka overcame Ewen Ferguson of Scotland 5&4.

Scotsman Robert MacIntyre upset Sweden’s Alex Noren 5&3, but Meronk clinched the title for Continental Europe on the last hole of match six against Shinkwin.

There was to be no consolation for Great Britain and Ireland in the final match either as Englishman Richard Mansell fell to a 4&3 loss against Italy’s Guido Migliozzi.

The Hero Cup has been introduced to give more players greater experience of a matchplay team tournaments, with an eye on the Ryder Cup which is staged biennially between Europe and the United States.

Europe’s captain Luke Donald has been overseeing the maiden event to help prepare for September’s Ryder Cup, which will be held in Rome.

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