Dispiriting, but far from hopeless: Dominant USA lead 6-2 after day one of Ryder Cup

McIlroy lost both his matches on day 1 as Team USA have a strong early lead at Whistling Straits.

Fri, 24 Sep, 2021 - 23:18

Scott Michaux

It’s bleak, but it’s not over.

Europe won only one of eight matches Friday and scratched out two halves in the afternoon fourballs to trail a heavily favored American team 6-2 after the first day of the 43rd Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.

“No doubt it was a tough day. Clearly not what you wanted, 6-2,” said Pádraig Harrington, the European captain. “There's obviously still 20 points to play for. We've only just played for about 25% at this stage. It isn't a good start, but there's still a lot to play for.”

It’s the largest American lead after two sessions since 1977 and the largest U.S. first-day lead since 1975, before Continental Europe was invited to play. The team from Great Britain and Ireland in 1977 that included Eamonn Darcy and rookie Nick Faldo trailed 7½-2½ at Royal Lytham & St. Annes when it was played under a reduced format. The 1975 U.S. team at Laurel Valley led 6½-1½ after one day.

As dispiriting as Friday’s sessions turned out – Europe lost both 3-1 – it’s far from hopeless. The U.S. team trailed 6-2 after Friday in 1999 at Brookline and 10-6 heading into the Sunday singles before rallying to win 14½-13½ when captain Ben Crenshaw “had a good feeling.” In 2012 at Medinah, the Americans seemed on the brink of a blowout before Ian Poulter birdied five consecutive holes late Saturday to send Europe into the Sunday singles trailing 10-6, and captain José Maria Olazábal’s team made an inspired rally to win 14½-13½.

Rory McIlroy had an exasperating day to exemplify Europe’s start, struggling with his own game while watching two American teams pour in birdie after birdie. In an afternoon fourballs match with Shane Lowry when they briefly led 1 up after McIlroy made eagle on the par-5 fifth, the U.S. team of Tony Finau and Harris English pulled away with a stream of birdies to win 4 and 3.

As a result, McIlroy will sit out a session for the first time since 2014, being held out of the morning foursomes.

World No. 1 Jon Rahm accounted for 1½ points Friday, earning a critical halve in the afternoon when Tyrrell Hatton stuck his 200-yard approach to 7 feet and made the putt for birdie on the 18th hole. Rahm and Sergio Garcia got Europe’s only point in foursomes and will be sent out again top of the order on Saturday against Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger.

“When the wind picked up, none of us played our best golf,” said Rahm. “I'm not going to lie, when I hit my bunker shot on 16 and we both had over 15 feet for birdie and they were both inside 10 feet, things did look dark to say the least. Luckily I was able to roll mine in, and I told (Hatton) right away if we finish strong we can still get this done.

“To birdie this hole (18) the way did he – driver, 5-iron to 6 feet and make it – it's a heck of a hole. Not many people are as clutch as he is under pressure, and he showed it right here, so hopefully this gives him a lot of confidence for (Saturday) and get this ball rolling.” Said Hatton: “The half point for the team was huge. Hopefully that turns the momentum in our favor.”

Viktor Hovland and Tommy Fleetwood built a 3-up lead through eight holes only to watch Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay fight back to get a halve. Thomas lit the rally fire with a 32-foot birdie on the ninth, Cantlay nearly aced the 12th and Thomas squared the match draining a 17-foot eagle putt on the par-5 16th.

“At one point we had the upper hand and I had a couple of good chances to put us further ahead at the start of the back nine,” said Fleetwood, who missed birdie putts of 7 and 8 feet on Nos. 10 and 11 that could have opened a 4-up lead.

“A win would have been nice, but we did great. It was just a pleasure to be in that match.”

Harrington tried to present a silver lining before gathering his team for a group meeting to prepare for Saturday’s sessions.

“When it was really, really tight, the boys came through, and it certainly felt like we couldn't have afforded … those two halves at the very end were crucial for us,” Harrington said. “Tyrrell with the birdie on the last, very, very important in those situations.

“As much as we would have liked to have gotten wins on the board, we didn't feel like we could afford to have lost those matches. Maybe a little bit of momentum swing there, and we feel good about that. And coming out (Saturday), obviously we need a big day.”

Harrington benched McIlroy and Poulter in favor of a Hatton and Wiesberger, who will pair with Casey and Hovland, respectively, in the second and third foursomes matches. Lee Westwood and Matt Fitzpatrick will go out again in the anchor match against Cantlay and Schauffele.

U.S. captain Steve Stricker ran with his same foursomes teams, only moving Thomas and Jordan Spieth into the third spot and with Koepka and Berger at the top. Johnson and Collin Morikawa will again go out second against Casey and Hatton.

“We are very happy with the start, but my message to the guys before I left is tomorrow is a new day,” Stricker said. “You know, let's just go out (Saturday) and try to win that first session again in the morning and pretend today never happened, and let's keep our foot down and continue to play the golf that we know we can play.”

McIlroy had never before lost two matches in the same day in five previous Ryder Cups and on Friday suffered defeat in the most lopsided match each session. McIlroy and Ian Poulter fell 5 and 3 to Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay team that made seven birdies in an alternate-shot format.

“I mean, the last two sessions, Xander, Patrick, played wonderful, and Tony … I haven't seen Tony putt as good as that in a long time,” McIlroy said. “When you have got a couple of pairs like that on form – on a difficult golf course where it's sort of hard to make birdies and they go on runs – if you're not quite a hundred percent on top of your game, it's tough.”

Harrington defended McIlroy: “Yeah, the golf didn't go as well as he would have liked, but I'm not second-guessing him for a second in terms of his leadership and what he does for my team.”

Lowry, making his Ryder Cup debut, made birdie on the opening hole and didn’t add another all day.

“We got unlucky today,” Lowry said. “We probably didn't play our best but we hit some good shots and got bad breaks. … We probably should have given them a better match than we did but it is what it is.”

Dustin Johnson and Xander Schauffele each won two matches for the Americans Friday, teaming up in the afternoon fourballs to lead from the third hole onward and beat Paul Casey and Bernd Wiesberger 2 and 1 in the opening match.

“But both played really good and we ham-and-egged it really well and if one of us was out of the hole the other was in it and had a good look,” said Johnson. “That's why we have a teammate, and we played nicely and had a great match.”