American Ben Griffin reacts on the 15th hole during a singles match on the Bethpage Black golf course at the Ryder Cup golf tournament on Sunday in Farmingdale, N.Y. (AP photo)

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Rory McIlroy still remembers his tears from losing so badly in the Ryder Cup. What stung even more were the words from that Sunday four years ago at Whistling Straits.

The Americans won 19-9, the biggest Ryder Cup blowout ever over Europe. Yes, the gallery was one-sided because of travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic. And yes, that was a powerful U.S. team with all 12 playing at a high level. That never seems to happen.

This was a team that was going to change the course of the Ryder Cup.

“I was trying to tell the guys, ‘Let’s get to 20 points,’ because this is going to be the next era of Ryder Cup teams for the U.S. side,” Patrick Cantlay said that day.

“If we play like we did this week, the score will be the same over there,” Jordan Spieth added.

McIlroy couldn’t help but think of those predictions as Europe celebrated its second straight win since that beating, hanging on for a 15-13 victory.

He looked around at flags draped around each teammate from their nine countries, all of them mostly proud of the Team Europe emblem on the crest of their shirts. Unseen was the image of Seve Ballesteros stitched in the inside of the shirt so that it touched their hearts.

“The comments and what people were saying after Whistling Straits about the decades of American dominance, we took a lot from that,” McIlroy said. “We let that fuel us.”

The “American dominance” ended six years after continental Europe was invited to the party, and there is little to suggest that’s about to change.

Playing on the road against an angry New York crowd that was nasty and disruptive only fueled Europe even more. It set a Ryder Cup record — under the current format that dates to 1979 — by losing only four of the 16 team matches going into Sunday.

No team had ever come back from more than a four-point deficit. Europe was up by seven.

It was close in the end — too close for Europe, until Shane Lowry came through with biggest putt of his life to secure the gold trophy — but this requires a bigger picture.

McIlroy has been saying for the last two years winning a Ryder Cup on the road is among the biggest accomplishments in golf. He must have been referring to the Americans, who haven’t done that since 1993.

Europe picked up its fifth road win in the last 10 Ryder Cups, and it now has won 11 of the last 15 times. That’s the very definition of dominance.

“When you think about the last away Ryder Cup about what people were saying about decades of American dominance — whether it was home for them or away — and to be able to do what we’ve done in Rome and then here, you know, it shut a lot of people up,” McIlroy said.

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AP Ryder Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/ryder-cup