Forever to be remembered for the six-foot putt that gave Europe an astonishing victory at the 2012 Ryder Cup in Chicago, the second of his four caps.
In 2014 he followed victory at the Players Championship with an eight-stroke winning margin in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, where his 65-65 start equalled the all-time record for all four majors.
The win came four years after he beat Bubba Watson in a play-off for the PGA Championship.
The former world No. 1 shot 59 in his home country before joining the European Tour in 2007 and won the money list just three seasons later. He has 11 European Tour titles to his name, three of them in Abu Dhabi and also the 2011 HSBC Champions, part of the World Golf Championships series, where from five behind after 54 holes he fired a 63 to win by three.