The Europeans broke the Ryder Cup duck. Never expecting to shake off the bizarre distraction of a squeaky duck toy.

Never imagining the Americans would make them fight so hard on the final day in New York.

What had been shaping up to be a record-breaking win instead turned into a desperate scrap to avoid throwing it all away.

So ultimately, everything the American crowd did to antagonise the visitors backfired.

A raucous crowd is the Ryder Cup‘s appeal. Why no away team has won the biennial since 2012 – until now.

But the bitterness and toxicity were off the scale at Bethpage Black. Europe overcame it to win the 45th edition of golf’s most prestigious team prize.

After the putt that retained the trophy and a roar of relief, Ireland’s Shane Lowry said: “I’ve been so lucky to experience amazing things in this game.

“That was the hardest couple of hours of my life.”

It was tighter, tenser, and far more stressful than anyone imagined after Europe began Sunday’s singles session with a 12-5 lead.

Humiliation was avoided for the Americans after Donald Trump became their first sitting president to attend the Ryder Cup on Friday.

POTUS saw Europe start to build a commanding lead.

Maybe that’s why the home crowd was so riled and rattled by Saturday. It wasn’t just rowdy. This became the most abusive Ryder Cup in almost a century of matches.

There is firing up the home crowd and what unfolded at the first tee – a course announcer hurling a vulgarity at Rory McIlroy.

The tone was set for spectators goading the Northern Irishman with abuse about his private life and performances.

“Guys, shut up,” he eventually told hecklers.

It was an understatement when he later described conditions as “really challenging”.

So by the time Day 3 began, and the foul-mouthed announcer had apologised and stepped down, maybe it was no coincidence Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” was the morning soundtrack in the grandstand.

But there was a new tactic to disturb and antagonise – the ducks given out with cherry fairway fizz drinks.

Repeatedly squeaked as Europeans took their shots, McIlroy finally complained.

The insults had crossed the line.

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But eventually, as the hosts fought back, reeling off wins in the singles to put more red on the board, Europe made it over the line, scraping over the line with a salvage job.

“It’s been one of the hardest days I’ve ever experienced on a golf course,” said Tyrrell Hatton after drawing the penultimate match to secure the win.

“Those last five, six, seven holes were horrible.”

Instead of a record victory margin, 15-13 was the tightest since Europe won by a point at Medinah, Illinois, in 2012.

The weekend produced more drama, more discord, and disturbances in New York than imagined by Luke Donald, the first captain since fellow Englishman Tony Jacklin to win back-to-back editions since the 1980s.

“It’s got to be the most stressful 12 hours of my life,” he said. “We knew they’d be tough, we didn’t think they’d be this tough.”

A person has been killed and several others injured after a mass shooting and fire at a Mormon church in Michigan, police have said.

Authorities said at a news conference that the suspect was shot dead by police officers, and that nine others were injured.

Two of those were said to be in critical condition, Grand Blanc Township Chief William Renye told reporters.

He added that the suspect was a 40-year-old man from Burton, who drove his vehicle into the church and began firing rounds at the hundreds of people attending Sunday service.

The suspect used an assault rifle and deliberately started the blaze, Chief Renye said, before adding that officers believe they will find additional victims in the fire.

The incident took place at around 11am local time at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, about 50 miles north of Detroit.

In a statement on Sunday morning, Grand Blanc Township Police Department added that the church was “actively on fire” and urged the public to avoid the area.

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement that “my heart is breaking for the Grand Blanc community” after the shooting.

She added: “Violence anywhere, especially in a place of worship, is unacceptable. I am grateful to the first responders who took action quickly.”

Sheriff: ‘Entire church is on fire’

Genesee County sheriff Christopher Swanson said at around 12.20pm (5.20pm in the UK) that the “entire church is on fire”, and confirmed that people who were at the church have been evacuated.

Around 20 minutes later, the police department said the fire had been contained.

US attorney general Pam Bondi also confirmed the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are responding to the incident.

US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that “the suspect is dead, but there is still a lot to learn”, before saying the shooting “appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America”.

He added: “PRAY for the victims, and their families. THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!”

In the wake of the shooting and fire, the New York Police Department said it would deploy officers to religious institutions across the city “out of an abundance of caution”.

The incident occurred the morning after Russell M Nelson, the oldest-ever president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died at 101.

Shootings reported in North Carolina, New Orleans, Texas

Meanwhile, authorities responded to a mass shooting at a coastal town in North Carolina late on Saturday, where three people were killed.

At least eight others were injured in that incident, where someone opened fire from a boat into a crowd at a bar.

Another shooting took place at a south Texas casino early on Sunday, with seven people shot and two killed.

A woman was also killed, and three others were injured in Bourbon Street, New Orleans, early on Sunday after a shooting.

It was one sentence among the many words Donald Trump spoke this week that caught my attention.

Midway through a jaw-dropping news conference where he sensationally claimed to have “found an answer on autism”, he said: “Bobby (Kennedy) wants to be very careful with what he says, but I’m not so careful with what I say.”

The US president has gone from pushing the envelope to completely unfiltered.

Last Sunday, moments after Charlie Kirk‘s widow Erika had publicly forgiven her husband’s killer, Mr Trump told the congregation at his memorial service that he “hates his opponents”.

Twenty-four hours later, he drew fierce rebuke from medical experts by linking the use of Tylenol (paracetamol) during pregnancy to increased risk of autism.

The president treats professional disapproval not as a liability but as evidence of authenticity, fuelling the aura that he is a challenger of conventions.

On Tuesday, he went to the United Nations, where his frustrations over a stalled escalator and teleprompter failure were the prelude to the most combative address.

“I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell,” he told his audience, deriding Europe’s approach to immigration as a “failed experiment of open borders”.

Then came a U-turn on Ukraine, suggesting the country could win back all the land it has lost to Russia.

Most politicians would be punished for inconsistency, but Mr Trump recasts this as strategic genius – framing himself as dictating the terms.

It is hard to keep track when his expressed hopes for peace in Ukraine and Gaza are peppered with social media posts condemning the return of Jimmy Kimmel to late-night television.

Perhaps most striking of all is his reaction to the indictment of James Comey, the FBI director he fired during his first term.

In theory, this should raise questions about the president’s past conflicts with law enforcement, but he frames it as vindication, proof that his enemies fall while he survives.

Mr Trump has spent much of his political career cultivating an image of a man above the normal consequences of politics, law or diplomacy, but he appears to feel more invincible than ever.

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From funerals to world summits, world peace to public health, he projects the same image: rules are for others.

It is the politics of the untouchable.