Hero Cup: Continental Europe defeats GB&I in Abu Dhabi

Continental Europe has won the inaugural, defeating Great Britain & Ireland 14.5-10.5 in Abu Dhabi.

Francesco Molinari’s side went into the final day’s singles session with a two-point cushion over Tommy Fleetwood’s GB&I.

They then won six of the ten matches to run out convincing winners as Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald watched on.

Italian Molinari led from the front, defeating fellow Open champion Shane Lowry 3&2 in the opening match of the session. In the end, it was Pole Adrian Meronk who sealed a deserved win, holing a lengthy putt to see off England’s Callum Shinkwin at the 18th.

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“I’m super happy for the guys,” said Molinari. “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’s a great event. We really enjoyed it. The DP World Tour has done a great job of setting it up and I think we played some really great golf overall.”

Donald, appointed Ryder Cup captain last August following Henrik Stenson’s defection to LIV, was one of the driving forces behind the match.

He admitted afterwards that it had been an extremely worthwhile exercise ahead of September’s clash with the United States in Rome.

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“It’s like a dry run,” he said. “If I’d gone straight into Rome without having any of this experience, I think it would have been a much tougher job. To be in this environment and know where you’ve maybe made some errors and correct those going forward has been invaluable.

“For the players, it’s a great start to their season. I think they’ve really enjoyed it. There’s nothing quite like that team atmosphere and everybody seems to have had a great time.”

Hero Cup – Singles results in full

Continental Europe names first

Francesco Molinari defeated Shane Lowry, 3&2
Thomas Pieters lost to Tommy Fleetwood, 3&2

Antoine Rozner lost to Tyrrell Hatton, 5&4
Nicolai Hojgaard defeated Seamus Power, 1 up

Thomas Detry lost to Matt Wallace, 2&1

Adrian Meronk defeated Callum Shinkin, 1 up

Victor Perez defeated Jordan Smith, 4&2

Sepp Straka defeated Ewen Ferguson, 5&4

Alex Noren lost to Robert MacIntyre, 5&3

Guido Migliozzi defeated Richard Mansell, 4&3