Rome In A Day: Europe Opens Historic Lead
USA suffers through a brutal opening Ryder Cup session as Captain Donald pulls all the right levers. Speaking of disasters: NBC's commercial and coverage pain. Plus, the 18th shines and more.
The Empire has fallen.
The nation pegged to never lose another Ryder Cup has already lost this one.
Europe’s stars delivered and there is little reason to think much will change save for a few points won here or there. Marco Simone proved to be the cavernous golf equivalent of the Colosseum, with this much less violence-thirsty home crowd willing their squad over a late afternoon line when players running on fumes reversed possible American points turned into hemorrhoid-inducing halves.
Captain Luke Donald pulled all the right strings and sent out a confident bunch who clutched up. His magical touch started with a key format switch and ended with him using his full lineup where everyone secured at least a 1/2 point. The resulting rout helped Europe open a 6 1/2 to 1 1/2 lead and the largest first day lead in Ryder Cup history.
USA Captain Zach Johnson made a few odd choices and sounded like he was talking himself into America supposed depth even after the shellacking. This, in a transitional year missing at least two potential match play pests essentially disqualified for taking LIV’s money, including 2021’s leader in points Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, winner of three points last time around.
Barring USA infecting Europe with the head cold Johnson said has been going around the team room or fixing foursomes issues over the Waldorf’s best chicken soup, this thing is over.
Stick a sword in USA’s hopes and pencil in 34 years come 2026 since America last won on European soil.
It all started somewhat admirably with Europe’s first-ever opening session sweep and only the fourth session shutout in Cup history.
“It's been an unbelievable session,” Rory McIlroy said after he and Tommy Fleetwood defeated Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele 2&1 in the morning anchor match. “We switched the format this year to go foursomes first because statistically, that's our better session. And all week, all we've been talking about is getting off to a fast start.”
McIlroy revealed that the already sharper Europeans coming in kept up the intensity in practice without becoming foursomes fanatics.
“We've been playing little three hole matches in practice; three holes, go again, three holes, go again. It's something that the captain, Luke, has drilled into us. We were ready to go from the first tee shot as you could see, and how everyone played.”
Team USA is now 2-16-2 in Europe for the last five foursomes sessions.
The first sign of USA trouble came sartorially when opening match contestant Sam Burns emerged from the gladiatorial tunnel and onto the first tee wearing the wrong Team USA hat (not that anyone necessarily blamed him given the ugly red-white-and-blue number everyone else was wearing.) But Burns was a curious choice statistically and emotionally. Particularly with Brooks Koepka, the current PGA Champion and one of USA’s best players, relegated to first tee cheerleader. From there Burns and Scheffler kept up their struggles in team events. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton disposed of Burns and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler 4&3.
As everyone in blue and yellow could tell you, slow starts are tough to overcome. The foursomes format flip to kick off the day was driven by Donald knowing it was a European strength, an American weakness and a format that could set the day up much better if the less-sharp Americans coming into these proceedings were just a little off in the more demanding alternate shot. This was apparent to everyone but the USA brain trust, whose analytics failed to nominate the generally unflappable five-time major winner Koepka as the right opening match partner for Scheffler.
After the historic foursomes sweep, USA came out with some new pairings and a surprise break-up of the Schauffele-Cantlay duo. That surprise may have been illness related. It took several questions to learn the lineup may have been dictated by a head cold floating around the team after Johnson initially suggested there were health-related reasons for his lineup decisions.
“We're just fighting things,” Johnson said. “It's kind of passed around a little bit, caddies, players. It is what it is. But it's nothing more than that. Guys are fighting and playing regardless. I mean, it's not anything that's kind of weighed us down because of the depth we have and because of the many options we think we have.”
The afternoon saw a chance for America to tip things dramatically or at least grab a couple of points outright despite Europe leading in two matches after nine holes. Inspired ham-and-egging and the incredible fan energy seemed to will at least two matches to the par 5 18th. A trio of made putts there and two ensuing Maximus impressions sucked the life out of Team USA’s dinner plans.
By securing halves in the final three afternoon matches, Europe made history again: it was the first time since the matches began in 1927 that Americans had failed to win a full point over a day of play.
The match of all matches Friday came late in the warm day when Rahm and Nicolai Hojgaard kept matching the Scheffler/Koepka duo put together and going out again Saturday morning.
Rahmgaard made 10 birdies in 15 holes, then eagled 16 to get the match all square. The Europeans lost the difficult par 3 17th to a Scheffler birdie before another eagle by Rahm—the putt hit so hard to a goofy hole location that it bounced off the hole, up, and then in—to tie the match.
Remarkably, Scheffler and Koepka won two holes with pars, birdied seven of the last including the last five holes, yet still only managed a half point. That might explain why Koepka groveled nonsensically after the match about Rahm’s behavior (more on the tantrum-of-the-day below).
Superstars McIlroy and Hovland performed up to expectations, rookie sensation Ludvig Aberg didn’t shine but he didn’t embarrass himself under absurd pressure, while the previously-winless Matt Fitzpatrick finally played his four-ball match in his third Ryder Cup. The Northwestern great and 2022 U.S. Open champion opened 6-under-par through six holes alongside McIlroy in a blowout win over Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele.
“I was so happy for Fitz,” said Donald. “I told him many times, ‘you know, you look at some guys that struggled early in Ryder Cups in their career, Seve would have been one of them.’ You trace back to his first two Ryder Cups, I think he made a point. Francesco had two half-points in his first two Ryder Cups and went 5-0 in Paris. It's his time to start writing the next chapter of his Ryder Cup history, and he started that today.”
There were a few standout performances on the U.S. side besides Koepka and Scheffler. Wyndham Clark made three birdies in a row and six through 13 in his Ryder Cup debut, while Justin Thomas made a huge birdie putt at the 18th while carrying Jordan Spieth for a big 1/2 point.
“We have depth,” a stiff upper-lip Johnson intoned after the dramatic 18th hole heroics. “We still have depth.”
But the vaunted depth appeared more European than American. Donald also everyone into action on day one when it seemed possible a couple of non-Aberg rookies might sit until Sunday. Instead, it was Hojgaard who carried Rahm for a while.
“We wouldn't have had a chance if it wasn't for him on the front nine,” Rahm said.
Donald also showed Europe was not wedded to set partnerships and more nimble when it came to matching skills with formats and batting orders off the tee. Whether because of a plan, analytics, illness or the buddy system, USA’s approach felt just a little off and looks more sensible Saturday.
However the data to support hope for America is pretty much non-existent:
There’s a 69.2% chance after day one of the leading team going on to win (and I’m sure Edoardo Molinari’s bespoke algorithms would put that number higher with the historic lead factored in).
After the opening two sessions, eight of the last 10 leading teams went on to win or retain the Ryder Cup.
A U.S. win would mean overcoming the largest deficit in Cup history (four points, Brookline).
Europe needs to win just 8 of the remaining 20 points available and could technically retain the Cup Saturday with a highly-unlikely sweep.
Yep, this thing is over. But at least the sun will be out, everyone will have been to Rome and it’s just a head cold going around.
Weird Comment Of The Day: Koepka Annoyed By Rahm
This particular bit of groveling combines one man’s general annoyance at playing incredibly and losing to a crazy last hole putt destined to go 10 feet by.
Speaking to the world television feed according to SI’s Bob Harig in this account, Koepka found an odd way to weave Jon Rahm’s reaction into his match assessment.
"I mean, I think me and Scottie birdied, what did we say, 14, we birdied 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and then lost by two. So yeah. I mean, I want to hit a board and pout just like Jon Rahm did. But, you know, it is what it is. Act like a child. But we're adults. We move on."
After the round Captain Johnson was unaware of the quote and speculated that the “board” reference may have been “back board” related and in response to Rahm’s putting hitting the back of the 18th hole.
However, Rahm’s reaction to the absurd last hole putt was a virtual eye-roll and embarrassed laughter.
Even the European team enjoyed a more muted celebration.
“We didn't celebrate too hard when it went in because he knew he had hit it a little hard and got away with it,” Donald said. “But what a line. We were sitting right behind the green, myself, Shane, a bunch of the guys, and we could see it tracking, and we knew it had a chance. Thank God he took the flag out because it might have bounced off the flag if he hadn't.”
Perhaps there was another incident that prompted the “pout” comments from Koepka? Or just the agony of losing such an incredible match?
Hole Of The Day: 18th
No morning match made it to the finisher after Europe dominated the foursomes. But Marco Simone’s finisher and an especially peculiar looking hole location on a slope proved to be a match-decider late in the day. Europe managed to hold for a half-point in its first afternoon four-ball through the hole. Hovland matched Justin Thomas’s birdie were then followed by halves in the next two matches after stunning made putts from Rahm and Rose.
“That was my moment there on 18, which was for him and for us and the whole team,” Rose said. “I haven't had many moments in Ryder Cups, I've had points, but I haven't had that many moments in the afternoon in four-balls and had the whole team around. That was immense.”
Donald agreed.
“What we did going down 18 just shows the determination, the grit, the perseverance, kind of the unity of our team,” he said. “They never gave up, and they kept pushing till the very end. And to hole putts like Viktor did, like Jon did, and of course Rosey, right at the end, that is huge. It really looked like 3-1 at one point for the U.S.”
Rose will forever be a fan of the finisher even if he never plays it again this week.
“This 18th hole with the setting sun has done us proud.”