Rory McIlroy celebrates putt: Wanted to put exclamation mark on session

— -- Take a bow, Rory McIlroy.

After rolling in a 20-foot eagle putt on No. 16 to finish off Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar, McIlroy turned to the partisan American crowd and bowed, twice, then screamed, "C'mon!" as he punched the chilly Minnesota air with his fist.

It was an emphatic finish to an impressive afternoon rally for the Europeans at the Ryder Cup. McIlroy and Thomas Pieters beat Johnson and Kuchar 3 and 2 to close the afternoon session. The Europeans won three of the four matches in the afternoon after losing all four of the morning matches.

"Even before I hit that putt, I wanted to put an exclamation point on that session for us," he said. "I actually thought about the celebration before I hit the putt. I knew it had a good chance of going in."

The crowd at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska was fired up after the American sweep in the morning, and McIlroy was only too happy to quiet them down in the afternoon in his second Ryder Cup on U.S. soil.

"This is definitely a little more hostile," McIlroy said. "Reactions like that [bow] on the last, I just want to let people know how much it means to us."

McIlroy also said he wasn't "fazed by anything said by the crowd."

"And I'm not fazed by anything the U.S. throws at us," he said.

The United States holds a 5-3 lead headed into Saturday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.