BLOOMFIELD HILLS, United States (AFP) - Scotland's Colin Montgomerie pulled off a sensational victory over America's David Toms to give Europe the point needed to win the Ryder Cup here.
Only minutes earlier, England's Lee Westwood defeated Kenny Perry to make sure the Europeans retained the Cup.
But it was the 41-year-old Montgomerie, the rock of the European team, who sank a trecherous three-foot putt to pull off the victory.
With five of the 12 singles still to be finished, Europe took a 14 1/2 to 8 1/2 unasailable lead thanks to Montgomerie's triumph.
The burly Scotsman, who earlier this year was an emotional wreck after the very public breakup of his marriage, had tears in his eyes as he was hugged by European captain Bernhard Langer.
"It's very emotional for me," said Montgomerie, who has never been beaten in Ryder Cup singles. "It has been a fantastic day, a fantastic week."
Langer vowed that the team would party all night.
"I'm so happy for all the guys. It was more easy than we perhaps thought. This has been incredible," said Langer.
"The guys came out blazing this afternoon. At the start there was a lot of red on the leaderboard but the boys put up point after point and suddenly the scoreboard was nearly all blue," he added.
It was a stunning win for Europe, which set it up on Saturday by taking an 11-5 lead, the biggest score chalked up by Europe after the opening two days.
The Americans knew they needed to pull off the biggest comeback in Ryder Cup history if they were going to win back the Cup, won two years ago by Europe at the Belfry.
For nearly two hours, the 40,000 partisan American fans were given a glimmer of hope as Tiger Woods led the charge. In the first five matches, America led in all.
Woods ran over English rookie Paul Casey 3 and 2 in the first match of the day but a hint of what was to come came when Sergio Garcia, in the second match, came back from two down to Phil Mickelson to win 3 and 2.
It was a brilliant win for the 24-year-old and it gave Europeans their first point of the singles.
"I think it was definitely important to have the first point for our team," said Garcia. "I think Bernhard (Langer) and all my teammates were behind me and I really felt the push.
"It was a big win. I hope it helped the guys coming after me seeing that I was coming back."
Playing in the third game, Darren Clarke looked as if he was going to go down to Davis Love as the American had a two-hole lead with only three to go but the Ulsterman pulled off a sensational fight back to pull off a half.
"I think people didn't expect us to perform this well and unfortunately for the US guys we played very, very well," said Clarke who sat down by the 18th green and shared a Cuban cigar with Love as they watched the other players finish.