Players jump to Faldo's defence

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Faldo's plan backfired when Padraig Harrington, winner of the last two majors, star-of-the-week Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Graeme McDowell were all still out on the Valhalla course as the American celebrations started.

Following Europe's 16 1/2 to 11 1/2 defeat, Westwood said: "We hold the golf clubs, we hit the shots, not the captain. If you want to talk about me being rested and Sergio (Garcia) being rested (Saturday morning foursomes), that's the session we won, so Nick was right to do that. So you tell me whether Nick was right or wrong."

Garcia, who went out first on Sunday and was thrashed by Anthony Kim, added: "At the end of the day it comes down to playing well. If I would have played better and I would have won my match, maybe we would be talking and writing a different story.

"It has nothing to do with Nick. At the end of the day we are the guys that need to perform well on the course. We just need to be better than the guys we play. It's not his fault."

On the singles line-up, Poulter said: "We talked about it for a long time. We all sat down and said where we wanted to play.

"If it didn't come off it does not look good, but I don't think that's a true reflection.

"We thought we could get up early to get the middle pack through a couple of matches and we thought they would leave a few strong guys at the end.

"It did not happen that way. It's all ifs and buts. I thought Nick did a good job, but how can you say that if you lost?

"We got beat fair and square. I have a lot of respect for Nick and you guys (the media) don't see what goes on in the team room, so it's hard to give an accurate opinion from the outside looking in."