What began on Friday morning as an opportunity for American redemption after recent Ryder Cup disappointments ended on Sunday afternoon with a record-breaking victory that doubles as an ominous statement of intent for the years ahead.

Even before Xander Schauffele smacked a ball into the overcast Wisconsin blue toward the shimmering waters of Lake Michigan to kick off Sunday’s dozen singles matches, the victory celebrations were already in full swing all over the horseshoe-shaped grandstand encircling the first tee, where rowdy spectators clad in red, white and blue sucked down tall cans of beer and sang the Star-Spangled Banner and God Bless America between resounding chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

It was a morning bursting with promise for an American team that since the turn of the century and even before has chronically underperformed at the Ryder Cup despite regularly coming in with the superior individual players. Not only did the US team wake up with one hand on the trophy, only 3½ points from the finish line, but the record margin of victory (18½-9½, achieved three times) was in very real danger of falling. After Daniel Berger won by one hole over Matt Fitzpatrick, it did.

The rollicking scenes all over the Straits Course were familiar enough: the American fans have always gone all out for golf’s biennial matchplay showcase. It is the players’ commitment to competing for team, country and captain that has too often been called into question during an alarming run of form that included defeats in seven of the previous nine competitions and 12 of 17 going back to 1985.

Paul Azinger, who made four appearances as a player before captaining the team to a memorable win over the Europeans at Valhalla in 2008, put a fine point on America’s self-defeating ambivalence as recently as Friday morning. “It means more to every European that’s ever played than to any American that’s ever played, honestly,” he said. “That’s too bad for us. It means the world to me, but I just don’t know how you match the energy, the passion and the meaning that Europe brings to these matches: it’s everything to them. It’s their whole life’s work, they think about being on the Ryder Cup team their whole life. Americans aren’t quite that way but it’s in our head. We want to win.

“I think this American team has a chip on its shoulder … you have six rookies here who are unscarred, the veterans are pretty engaged so it’s going to be a lot for Europe to overcome.”

Optimism prevailed in the run-up but not even Azinger could have foreseen the scale of the carnage that played out: that a US team including six Ryder Cup debutants would break from the gate with dominant showings in both Friday sessions, extend their lead once more in Saturday morning’s foursomes and never look back, giving their European rivals no quarter from wire to wire and reducing the entirety of Sunday’s singles matches to a formality.

From a distance it might not seem that extraordinary an outcome. Steve Stricker’s talent-stacked 12-man team includes six major champions, an Olympic gold medallist and 10 of the world’s top 13 players. They enjoyed the familiar advantage of being able to align the setup of the 7,500-yard course to their strengths and a magnified edge in crowd support due to Covid-19 travel restrictions on European-based spectators. The Americans simply lived up to expectations, lofty as they were.

It is entirely possible the US team will come hurtling back to earth in Rome in two years and the familiar questions will resurface, but the Whipping at Whistling Straits feels significant, if not an epochal sea change. The old guard of Woods, Mickelson, Furyk et al are gone, along with the malaise that came to define their era. The historic rout that unfolded over the weekend was handed down by the youngest team in the competition’s 94-year history – with an average age of 29 and only 12 previous appearances among them – many of whom are all but certain to be fixtures in the team for a decade or more to come.

The six first-time Ryder Cup participants who comprised half of the team – Schauffele (aged 27), Scottie Scheffler (25), Patrick Cantlay (29), Harris English (32), Collin Morikawa (24) and Daniel Berger (28) – didn’t simply hold their own but led from the front and contributed the majority of the points. And Stricker, the steady hand who used four of his six discretionary picks on rookies, did an excellent job of selecting players who were comfortable together and played within themselves as a result.

“The young guys on this team get along really well,” Cantlay said after his 4&2 win over Lowry. “We sent out rookies maybe four out of the first five matches. That’s unheard of and those guys are performing. Everybody gets along. The atmosphere is light but I know everyone has that killer instinct and we are going to bring that to future cups.”

Stricker’s team might not have the historical heft of the 1981 Ryder Cup team that has long been held up as the competition’s gold standard: a team including Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin, Larry Nelson, Ben Crenshaw and Johnny Miller that rampaged to a 18½-9½ win over the Europeans at Walton Heath.

But that they’re even in the conversation after Sunday’s coronation is remarkable enough a testament to a generational shift that may well signal the birth of a dynasty.

Toney passes Van Dijk test and eyes up Liverpool ‘dream’

For the first time in the Premier League this season, Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool looked vulnerable in defence.

Jurgen Klopp’s side had only conceded one goal in five league matches heading into Saturday’s contest with Brentford, but were breached three times by the Bees on an evening to forget for the Reds.

Van Dijk has barely had to break sweat in any of Liverpool’s games this season, though the Dutchman did not perform in his usual assured manner and was exploited on more than one occasion.

Ivan Toney was the man who made life difficult for the 30-year-old as his physical strength and ability to make dangerous runs proved problematic for Klopp’s side.

You wouldn’t know this was Toney’s first season at the top level of English football based on his performance, highlighting to many Brentford’s inspired transfer gamble on the former Peterborough United striker.

Looking ahead to his first campaign in the Premier League in July, Toney admitted Van Dijk was the best defender was likely to face all season – a challenge he certainly rose to on Saturday.

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Moeen Ali will announce his retirement from Test cricket on Monday morning having informed Joe Root, the England captain, and Chris Silverwood, the head coach and national selector, of this decision last week.

Moeen had been pondering his Test future with those closest to him during the recent India series after the 34-year-old all-rounder started to question his ability to focus in the longest format. His mind was made up before details of quarantine and living conditions for the Ashes tour to Australia were sent on Friday to the England and Wales Cricket Board.

While England are optimistic the stated arrangements will not trigger a raft of withdrawals, Moeen simply feels he has run his race after 64 Test caps and is now looking to specialise in white-ball cricket for England, in county cricket for Worcestershire and domestic Twenty20 tournaments. He is playing for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League on a £700,000 contract.

Silverwood and Root were understanding as they ponder their Ashes plans – Moeen remains part of the setup looking to win the T20 World Cup before that tour – and shared their gratitude for a Test career that began in 2014 and returned five centuries, 195 wickets, 28 Test victories and nine series wins.

A mainstay of the Test team until the 2019 Ashes, Moeen returned against India this summer when, in the absence of Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes, the team needed a proven all‑rounder to balance the side. Though the comeback was one of only fleeting inspiration, Root elevated him to the position of vice-captain for the fourth Test at the Oval when Jos Buttler was on paternity leave.

Had the fifth Test not been cancelled, Moeen might even have become just the 15th player in Test history to score 3,000 career runs and claim 200 wickets. As it is, and perhaps fittingly for a career that often left supporters wanting more, he finishes 84 runs and five wickets short of joining an elite group of cricketers that features the likes of Ian Botham, Imran Khan and Garfield Sobers.

A final batting average of 28.29 fell short of expectations for an elegant left-hander who made a defiant unbeaten 108 against Sri Lanka in just his second Test but then occupied every position from one to nine to suit the team’s needs.

As an attacking off-spinner who got drift, dip and turn, but one who also struggled to contain batsmen at times, he was a match-winner on his day; only Derek Underwood (297 wickets) and Graeme Swann (255) have more Test victims among English spinners, while his five five-wicket hauls are bettered only by Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad since his debut.

There have been significant highs, including 25 wickets and 252 runs in the 3-1 win against South Africa in 2017 – a series that included a hat‑trick to seal victory at the Oval – and bowling England to series wins at home against India in 2014 and 2018. In 2016 he compiled four Test centuries in the calendar year, a feat only Root and Alastair Cook have recorded among Englishmen in the past decade.

But form fluctuated wildly trying to balance the demands of three formats – only Root (248) and Buttler (231) have played more times for England since Moeen won the first of 214 caps – and there have been lows along the way. Though an Ashes winner in 2015, in the away series in 2017-18 was his toughest period, averaging he averaged 19 with the bat and 115 with the ball during a 4-0 defeat.

That experience, his gut feeling during the India series and the prospect of months on the road this winter all fed into the recent decision to specialise. But overall his Test career may well go down as one of the more significant in recent times, both as a role model for the British Asian community and as a high-profile and popular Muslim sportsman who displayed his faith openly and proudly.