As is the case with every Ryder Cup, we were treated to some outstanding golf last week at Hazeltine, and Team USA, quite deservedly, beat Europe to win for the first time in eight years.

Captain Davis Love and his men looked stronger on paper, and they made the most of playing in home conditions. But it was not as if the Europeans just rolled over and played dead, they did fight tooth and nail and the 17-11 result is not a fair reflection of how competitive the tournament was.

Once the Americans got off to a flying start of winning all foursomes matches on the opening day, it was always going to be an uphill task for Darren Clarke and his team. But I thought they did extremely well to get back to within one point in the next two sessions.

Saturday afternoon fourballs was the defining session. Had Europe drawn level, or even maintained the one-point difference, the singles would have been a different ballgame altogether. Instead, it was the Americans who pulled clear by three points and that meant Europe were always going to be under pressure on Sunday.

If I was to pick two players from each side as my stars of the 2016 Ryder Cup, it would be Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka for USA and Rory McIlroy and Thomas Pieters for Europe. And my pick of the best of 28 matches would be either Sergio Garcia’s epic battle with Phil Mickelson in the singles, or Garcia and Rafael Cabrera-Bello fighting back from being four-down and halving their Saturday foursomes match against Reed and Jordan Spieth.

Of course, that stunning stretch of eight holes in the Reed-McIlroy singles was exhilarating, but they seem to run out of juice in the second half. Not Mickelson and Garcia. It was match play at its best as they made 19 birdies to share the honours on the final hole.

Reed has often been ridiculed for his ‘top-five’ statement earlier in his career, but this man is living up to his promise. Just like Ian Poulter and Garcia, he gets fired up in a team situation. Pieters, on the other hand, was under a lot of pressure being a rookie, but once mentored by McIlroy, he showed what we have all felt on the European Tour these last couple of years — he is the one to watch out for in the future.

On the much talked about fan behaviour, I think most European players were ready for such a welcome. What must never happen on the golf course are personal remarks, abuse and distractions when in the middle of a golf swing. That line was crossed several times by a minuscule percentage of fans, which was disappointing.

Even before Justin Rose pointed out that the course set-up was easy, I felt the same. But that is something that cannot be pointed as the main contributing factor to Europe’s defeat, because the conditions were the same for both teams. It is debatable whether set-up should be easy or tough, but I gravitate towards Rose’s side that it should be a challenging test for players of such calibre.

America’s victory sets up for an intriguing battle in Paris in two year’s time. I am sure I echo the fans when I say that I am already looking forward to September 2018.

(Jeev Milkha Singh is a four-time champion on the European Tour)