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Great Britain & Ireland win Vivendi Trophy

Monday, 28 September 2009
Thomas Clarke
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The GB&I team celebrate wining the Vivendi Trophy

On the back of the superb pairing performances from the GB & I team over the first few days, Paul McGinley's side had a 12 ½ to 7 ½ lead going into the Sunday singles matches and knowing that they only needed 2 points to win.

With the withdrawal of Anthony Wall due to a shoulder injury, that was changed to 1½ points as his match against Alvaro Quiros was immediately halved.

When Rory McIlroy beat Henrik Stenson on the final green and then Graeme McDowell defeated Robert Karlsson 3 & 2 the tie was over with 7 matches still playing.

Anders Hansen put in the performance of the day, an incredible ten under par for the 12 holes it took him to defeat England's Nick Dougherty – three under himself – by a 7 & 6 margin that was the biggest in the event's history.

Paul McGinley must be praised for his superb captaincy and in a post match quote he gave special praise to Sam Torrance, captain for McGinley's Ryder Cup debut at The Belfry in 2002 when he was the match-winner.

"To be honest, most of the stuff I'm doing in captaincy I'm doing from Sam. I've learnt more from him than the rest. Not that the others were wrong, but the others did what Sam did. He was my first introduction to captaincy."

Seve Ballesteros did send a message to both teams even though he could not be there himself due to his ill health. "I want to thank all my colleagues, the players, for the support and respect they have shown me over the years, and especially now," he said.

"I wish I could have been there today, at Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, but I don't have enough strength at the moment as my radiotherapy treatment finished last week, and I am suffering its consequences. I have followed the matches on TV and I was very happy to see competitive golf and great champions trying their best.

"I take this opportunity to congratulate Paul McGinley and his whole team for the victory in this year's Seve Trophy, and I hope this experience helps all the players for the future. I also want to thank Thomas Björn and the whole Continental Europe Team for their tremendous effort.

"I want to end up this short note by thanking Vivendi for supporting this year's Seve Trophy. I want to thank The European Tour, and all the French fans that went to watch the competition. Finally I want to thank all the people that are supporting me and sending me many messages of support, these really help me to keep going."