Europe win Royal Trophy

The Spaniard, who now has a unique hat-trick of Ryder Cup, Seve Trophy and Royal Trophy wins as skipper, could have been forgiven for preparing his victory speech overnight but Asia's inexperienced line-up had other ideas, picking up five singles wins out of eight.

It was left to Ulsterman Graeme McDowell and the cool-headed Irishman Paul McGinley, responsible for the winning putt in the 2002 Ryder Cup win over the U.S., to stem the tide of home victories on the treacherous Amata Spring Country Club course.

Their wins over Indian Jyoti Randhawa and China's Zhang Lian-Wei left Europe needing a point to finish the job but it did not arrive until the final rubber where Sweden's in-form Henrik Stenson demolished Thai Thongchai Jaidee 5&4.

Jaidee had the chance to prolong the match before the 14th but his putt for a win there narrowly missed from 12 feet. Europe, who have won the last two Ryder Cups and defend against the U.S. at the K-Club in Ireland in September, have traditionally struggled in matchplay singles.

They famously lost the 1999 Ryder Cup in Brookline, Boston, when a storming final-day singles comeback from a Tiger Woods-inspired U.S. wrested the trophy from Mark James's team.

It was almost a Bangkok repeat with Yasuharu Imano (Japan), Arjun Atwal (India), Thaworn Wiratchant (Thailand), SK Ho (South Korea) and Keiichiro Fukabori (Japan) all winning their singles against more illustrious European competitors including Ryder Cup skipper Ian Woosnam and Nick Faldo.