'There’s not going to be a better year in my career': Rory McIlroy enjoys 'dream week' after winning sixth Ryder Cup crown

​In terms of points, McIlroy had the second-best Ryder Cup campaign of his entire career, collecting 3.5 points from a potential five across the weekend in New York.

Having suffered defeat at Hazeltine (2016) and Whistling Straits (2021), Europe sealed their first away Ryder Cup triumph in 13 years with a 15-13 triumph at Bethpage Black – something which McIlroy declared would happen mere moments after lifting the trophy in Italy two years ago.

"It's nice to be right, I'm not right all the time!" he laughed when asked about his prediction. “I have absolute confidence in this team, absolute confidence in our leader Luke Donald, the vice-captains, the backroom staff.

"There's things people don't see behind the scenes.

"We won in Rome and the wheels were set in emotion to try and do something that hadn't been done in over a decade...as we talk today, 11 of the 12 on the team are the same, the captain is the same, we believed a lot in our continuity and I felt like we had way more of a chance than we had at Whistling Straits in 2021.

"I was bullish about our chances, but this has been a dream week. It was tight at the end and a bit stressful, but Shane played an unbelievable last four holes and he carried me through Saturday afternoon as well.

"He's an absolute legend alongside everyone else and I'm just so happy we could get it done."

McIlroy – and his wife Erika – endured torrid abuse from the American crowd with the Holywood native firing back at certain moments, telling spectators to ‘shut the f**k up’ after chants at hole 16 on Saturday.

The 36-year-old has had to show composure in some of the biggest moments of his career this season, including in a Masters play-off victory over Justin Rose which completed a career Grand Slam.

"You have something ahead of you and for me the easiest thing is to break it down into smaller pieces,” said McIlroy. “As much as it's a cliche, whether it's one shot at a time and on Sunday it was like one foot in front of the other.

"I felt like I was running on empty, I'd given so much of myself the first two days, and I tried as hard as I could out there against Scottie.

"We didn't have our best and it was a bit of a dogfight, but I dug in as much as I could.

"I tried to stay in my own little bubble as much as possible, it was obviously quite hard to do that at times, but I knew every hole that I completed was a little bit closer to that goal we all had in mind and that was the important thing.

"Thomas Bjorn walked with me a lot and he just kept encouraging me.

"Knowing you have the support of your team means a lot in an environment out there."