Ryder Cup: Rory McIlroy to pair with Shane Lowry after tough start for Europe
Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy look on from the 11th green during Friday Morning Foursome Matches. Picture: Warren Little/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy and “The Postman” Ian Poulter did not deliver from the anchor spot Friday morning against a pair of red-hot American Ryder Cup rookies, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.
After Poulter confidently declared on the eve of the match, “it's about putting points on the board. We have done that a lot for Team Europe and we're going to do it again,” the seasoned duo was blitzed 5 down from the start at Whistling Straits in a 5-and-3 defeat that left Europe in a 3-1 hole after the opening foursomes sessions.
“Yeah, the start wasn't great,” said McIlroy. “I don't know if anyone could have beat Xander and Patrick today.”
While it was a dispiriting start considering the pedigree of the teams captain Pádraig Harrington sent out, it was nothing to fret about – yet. The Americans have famously started fast, leading five and tied once in each of the last six Ryder Cups. Europe won four of those six.
The last time Europe led after the Friday morning session was 2006 at The K Club.
Friday morning’s scoreboard was largely draped in the same red as the bleachers. The lone European point on the board in the morning came first from the Spanish duo of Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia, winning 3-and-1 in a heavyweight match against Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. The Spaniards blended perfectly together and trailed only one hole after Thomas holed a 7-footer for birdie on the second, but Rahm squared it right away with a 14-footer on the third and a 58-footer from the fringe on the fourth.
While Garcia delivered consistent ball-striking, Rahm made birdie putts at Nos. 7, 8 and 10 to build a 3-up lead.
“I feel like that's when it got into gear,” he said of the birdies on 7 and 8 after the U.S. side failed to concede a short putt on 6. “I started really well after that and played nearly flawless golf.” The Americans got one back at 13, but on the 15th Garcia shut the door with a 24-foot birdie and blew kisses to the crowd before Thomas missed an 11-footer to tie to fall dormie.
“I think we could wager anything we could on who is going to make more putts, us or them there, we would have wagered us and caught a lot of lips, and they made about 150 feet of putts,” said Spieth. “So sometimes you run into a buzzsaw.”
They sealed a 3-and-1 win when Thomas’ tee shot on the par-3 17th caromed off a dune on the right and rolled across the green into a gruesome lie on the left while Garcia put it safely on the green to set up a concession despite Spieth hitting a miraculous recovery and nearly toppled and ran in Lake Michigan.
“I'd like to say, I don't think I exaggerated that fall, you know how steep that is,” Spieth said of his recovery on hazardous terrain. “Once I started moving, I was like, I've got to keep moving until I find a flat spot.” The only other blue that briefly flashed on the board was a 1-up lead after five holes from Paul Casey and Viktor Hovland before Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa flipped the match with consecutive 3’s and cruised to a 3-and-2 win.
Despite some wobbly putting, Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger never trailed and pulled ahead from a square match at the turn to win 2 and 1.
McIlroy and Poulter got off to a wretched start in the final match of the morning, falling behind by losing the first five holes to the red-hot rookie partnership of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.
It started with a poor wedge by McIlroy from 58 yards in the fairway on the first that came up 30 feet short in the fringe leading to a par. The Americans made birdie with Cantlay’s 5-foot putt.
McIlroy was shaky on the par-5 second hole as well, missing the fairway off the tee, sailing a bunker shot long over the green then missing a 7-footer for par that would have halved the hole.
After Xander Schauffele buried a 9-footer for birdie on the par-3 third, McIlroy put the team in trouble again with another drive left into the thicker rough, from which Poulter missed the green wide right. McIlroy’s pitch went 17 feet past the hole and Poulter’s par try to halve slid by the cup to fall 4 down.
At the par-5 fifth, McIlroy needed to make an 8-footer for birdie just to halve after Schauffele drained a 37-footer to keep the pressure on the European veterans. But his struggles continued with another miss and the deficit was a demoralizing 5 down.
“It's not nice to get off to the start 5-down through five,” Poulter said. “Not easy to come back, and they finished the match off.”
Poulter missed a 4-footer on 8 that could have won a hole and it wasn’t until the 10th that McIlroy won a hole with a 4-footer for birdie to trim the deficit to 4 down and breathe life into the match.
A sloppy American bogey at the 11th trim the gap to 3 holes. After Schauffele nearly aced to 12th for a conceded birdie, Poulter drained an 8-footer to halve to sustain hopes of a rally.
But Cantlay and Schauffele birdied four consecutive holes from 12-15 to close out a 5-and-3 victory.
“They played really good, four birdies in a row,” McIlroy said. “Geez, yeah, they played great. They were a great pairing today, and all you can do is praise them for the way they played.”
The late session sees four fourball matches taking place at the Wisconsin course where Europe captain Harrington gave Irish supporters their dream pairing as 2019 Open champion Lowry makes his Ryder Cup debut for Europe alongside fellow Irishman McIlroy in the better-ball format having sat out the alternate-shot matches earlier in the day by the shores of Lake Michigan.
The pair will face the American duo of Tony Finau and rookie Harris English in the third match of the session, which is set to get underway at 6:42pm Irish time with McIlroy under pressure to get off the mark having experienced a heavy 5&3 defeat alongside Ian Poulter against Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay in the foursomes.
Harrington has kept his promise to play all 12 team members on the opening day and US skipper Steve Stricker has done the same, handing starts in the later session to Bryson DeChambeau and playing partner Scottie Scheffler as well as Finau and English.
Stricker, though, has broken up the Schauffele/Cantlay partnership and will send out the former alongside Dustin Johnson in the opening fourball match against Paul Casey and Bernd Wiesberger.
DeChambeau and Scheffler will face world number one Jon Rahm, who had secured a lead-off foursomes win with fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia, and Tyrrell Hatton at 6:26pm with the final match setting off at 6:58pm as Justin Thomas partners Cantlay against European pair Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland.
6.10 Paul Casey and Bernd Wiesberger v Dustin Johnson and Xander Schauffele
6.26 Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton v Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler
6.42 Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry v Tony Finau and Harris English
6.58 Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland v Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay
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