Continental Europe win Hero Cup by four points ahead of Ryder Cup dust-up

Tommy Fleetwood was proud of his Great Britain & Ireland side despite losing the inaugural Hero Cup to Francesco Molinari's Continental Europe 14.5-10.5.

Ben Smith's picture
Sun, 15 Jan 2023
Continental Europe win Hero Cup by four points ahead of Ryder Cup dust-up

Tommy Fleetwood says he will forever cherish the memories of being a captain at the Hero Cup despite being defeated by Francesco Molinari's Continental Europe. 

In the end, Molinari's team beat Great Britain & Ireland 14.5-10.5. 

Continental Europe held a two-point advantage at Abu Dhabi Golf Club heading into the Sunday Singles. 

The Hero Cup has been introduced to give potential Ryder Cup players valuable experience.

Related: Report suggests Ryder Cup heading to Spain

It replaced the Seve Trophy, which began in 2000 and stopped being played in 2013. 

Molinari led from the front and secured the first point of the day by beating Shane Lowry. 

Fleetwood also won his match, defeating Thomas Pieters 3&2. 

But Continental Europe were too strong and won six out of the 10 matches on Sunday to claim the four-point victory. 

Scroll down for the full results...

Fleetwood told Sky Sports: 

"Obviously we came here to win and wanted to do it for each other.
"But the first thing I said at the start of the week was team-mates don't remember if you play bad or miss a putt, but everyone remembers if you don't give 100 per cent and I couldn't have asked for any more.
"I wish we could have got it done, but you remember these moments forever and cherish them, and I've loved playing with my team-mates this week.
"They clearly deserved it this week, they played the best golf. Some matches could have gone either way, but the winning team makes those moments count."

Molinari told Sky Sports: 

"It's amazing - I can finally relax. It's been great all week, I'm super-happy for the guys.
"It's been very easy leading them and being a captain for them. I think we found some great pairings and it has been a great week to start the year.
"It made my job a lot easier because I didn't have to tinker and change too much.
"It's a great event, we really enjoyed it, the DP World Tour has done a great job of setting up. I think we played some really great golf overall.
"We'll celebrate appropriately, for sure."

Related: Molinari slams criticism of his decline

Full Sunday Singles results from the 2023 Hero Cup

Winners in bold

Shane Lowry 3&2 Francesco Molinari

Tommy Fleetwood 3&2 Thomas Pieters

Tyrrell Hatton 5&4 Antoine Rozner

Seamus Power 1UP Nicolai Hojgaard 

Matt Wallace 2&1 Thomas Detry

Callum Shinkwin 1UP Adrian Meronk

Jordan Smith 4&2 Victor Perez

Ewen Ferguson 5&4 Sepp Straka

Robert MacIntrye 5&3 Alex Noren

Richard Mansell 4&3 Guido Migliozzi

Next page: Lowry calls on European young guns amid LIV uncertainty

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