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CHASKA, Minn. -- In the European press conference on Sunday night -- after the United States routed Europe 17-11 in the 41st Ryder Cup -- Rafael Cabrera Bello said something that piqued my interest.

"For me it's been a really good week," said Cabrera Bello. "I mean, in a way it's kind of ruined every other tournament I'm going to play from now on. It's been really exciting. I mean, getting to share so many moments with all my teammates, learning from the veterans and also just being out there, competing not for us as an individual but for something so much greater than us. It was a very, very huge honor, and it's really been a life-changing week for me."

A life-changing week. For so many players and caddies and managers the Ryder Cup can alter the trajectory of one's life. That is not hyperbole. Jordan Spieth has spoken many times about how the 2014 Ryder Cup propelled him towards his 2015 Masters and U.S. Open wins. For some the life change was not all good, though. Let's look at the big winners and the big losers of this year's Ryder Cup.

Winners

Brooks Koepka: Brooks went 3-1-0 in his first Ryder Cup appearance and mopped the floor with Danny Willett on Sunday 5&4. In a field rife with big boy bombers, Koepka still stood out. His length off the tee was jaw-dropping and laughter-inducing. He's always had the swagger that made you think he would be outrageously good in international team events. Now he has the record to back up that sentiment. He is, along with Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas, a big part of the future of American success at Ryder Cups.

"It's been an unbelievable experience," said Koepka. "To come in here as a rookie, to go in the team room, it's been unreal. I didn't know what to expect, but it really has been unbelievable. Everything that's gone on between the team room, to getting to know these guys that much better, it's surpassed everything I ever thought it would, and it's been fun."

Patrick Reed: He should run for president at this point. There is little else left to be said about his iconic performance. I don't use that term lightly, and it means something differently at a Ryder Cup than it does at a Masters or a U.S. Open. Reed was historically great this week and nobody will remember him as anything other than that decades from now. The interesting question will be whether he is able to take what happened at Hazeltine and translate it to major championship wins. Or will he simply be America's Ian Poulter? A good player who becomes generationally great one out of every 104 weeks. That story has yet to be written, but it will be an intriguing one to watch unfold.

Hazeltine National: I told another writer this on Saturday evening, but the course was sort of perfect for a Ryder Cup. It is not a great track by anyone's imagination, and I understand why some of the Europeans did not like it. But a lack of rough, flexibility with tee lengths and specifically the layout of the 15th, 16th and 17th holes was perfect. You want your Ryder Cup to come down to the most scenic spots that require the most strategy. The par-4 15th, par-5 16th and par-3 17th were perfect.

Rory McIlroy: If you didn't like him before, you certainly don't now. But if you liked him before for being the self-aware bad-ass that he actually is, then I cannot imagine anything he did this week hurting that. He played the leading role for Europe as a villainous monster, and he played it to perfection. That's all it is, though, it's a role. The same people who dislike McIlroy for this week are the same people who didn't understand Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report.

It's no wonder McIlroy said on Sunday he ran out of gas at the end. Heck, I ran out of gas from watching him and Reed go at it all day. His stock could not be any higher for me, though, as he has fully assumed the reins of leading European golf teams at all future international events.

Thomas Pieters: Remember when everyone was trying to decide whether European captain Darren Clarke should take Pieters or Russell Knox as a captain's pick? Pieters posted a 4-1-0 record and notched the most points at a Ryder Cup for a European. Ever. As if his outrageous play on the course didn't justify it, he got the ultimate compliment from Europe's de facto leader, Rory McIlroy, after the matches were over.

"I mean, I've got a partner beside me for the next 20 years, I'm not letting anyone else have him," said McIlroy as he slung an arm around the Belgian. Clarke tabbed Pieters as having Tiger and McIlroy-like talent. That felt hyperbolic, and it still does a little bit. But I can at least see where he's coming from.

Phil Mickelson's future captaincy: You know who had a lot riding on this week? Mickelson and his future as U.S. captain. He knew he had pushed all his chips to the middle of the table after everything that has happened over the last few years. Throwing Tom Watson under the bus. Starting the U.S. task force. Throwing Hal Sutton under the bus. Talking trash early in the week. All of it was basically a big "I'm right and you're not" statement from Lefty. Then he had to back it up. And he did. He went 2-1-1 and played one of the great Ryder Cup matches in history on Sunday against Sergio Garcia.

"Certainly I felt more pressure heading into today's matches," said Mickelson on Friday. "Given the buildup over the last couple years, the criticism, the comments, what have you; the pressure was certainly as great or greater than I've ever felt. I could have copped out and asked to sit, that would have been a total weak move, and I wanted to get out there. Put me out there. I enjoy that pressure. Certainly I played tight. This guy [Rickie Fowler] loosened me up. That's why I wanted him as my partner. He knows what to say and when to say it. He got some of my best golf out there in the end. Some of the iron shots down the stretch, a lot of it was due to things that he said to get me in the right frame of mind."

His future as a U.S. Ryder Cup captain is now solidified, and he will actually probably receive multiple invitations to do so with the first one likely coming in 2024 at Bethpage. What a show that will be.

Webb Simpson: Just for making this video with his wife, Dowd.

Losers

Jordan Spieth: It's odd to say someone who went 2-2-1 is a loser, and this is all relative because if you watched Mickelson pour champagne into Spieth's throat on Sunday evening, "loser" was not the term that comes to mind. But Spieth got waxed by Henrik Stenson on Sunday and Reed carried him to another win. Spieth is now empty when it comes to Ryder Cup and President's Cup singles matches (0-4). I'm not worried about him long-term, but he was supposed to be the full-fledged leader of this team coming in, and he didn't really play like it.

Danny Willett: He summed up his week nicely in the post-match press conference. One word: "S---."

The crowds: I was out on the course for about 29 of the 30 hours live golf was being played, and it is not an overstatement to say various patrons in the crowds acted despicably. I was walking right behind Rory McIlroy when a fan told him to "suck a d---," and it was pretty horrendous. I can live with the cheering of bad shots and everything that goes along with that. That's just sort of the collateral damage of a Ryder Cup in general.

But multiple times I witnessed fans singing or purposely yelping as European golfers were trying to hit their shots. It was bad, but I also think McIlroy sort of blew it out of proportion. I think he did this on purpose because McIlroy is the rare athlete that needs external motivation to make him really tick. This is right out of Michael Jordan's playbook, and it means what the crowd was trying to accomplish (beating McIlroy into submission) actually had the opposite effect. He thrived on it and used it as a shield to deflect attention from his teammates.