Europe will take a 5-3 lead into the second day of the Ryder Cup after a bright start from the American’s turned to gloom and doom!
Team Europe got off to the perfect start with Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson taking out the first match with a 3 and 2 victory. The Europeans then trailed the Morning Fourballs until Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari rescued their team with victory against Patrick Reed and Tiger Woods.
As the wind picked up in the afternoon, so did the fans. The players noticed it too with the pairing of Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari making reference to the crowd as they walked down the sixth fairway. The combination played two matches for two wins and most importantly two points.
All the momentum is in the hands of the European team following a pasting of their opposition team in the Friday afternoon foursomes. The fans at Le Golf National in Guyancourt, France, were at their vocal best seemingly enjoying the demise of the American’s. It was four matches and four losses for the Yank’s with Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickleson down seven after just nine holes. They looked totally outclassed against Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren in match four of the Friday Afternoon Foursomes.
The dust was blown off the history books to reveal that the American’s had not been clean swept in the Ryder Cup for the last 29 years. What started with an American 3-1 lead in the morning became a disaster. U.S Captain Jim Furyk remained upbeat at the close of play and was able to find the silver lining.
“The important message is, it was four points out of 28 that we played for. We’re not happy with it. I think we use it as motivation tomorrow. It’s significant, but it’s a small percentage of the points we’re going to play for this week. There’s time.”
Rory McIlroy summed up what the American’s need to do tomorrow to turn around their performance on the opening day, “You have to persist. Persist, persist, persist, until it turns around for you.”
Can the American team turn the tables on the European’s on day two? Tune in to find out!
The Teams:
America – Captain Jim Furyk
Players – Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickleson, Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Bubba Watson & Tiger Woods
Europe – Captain Thomas Bjorn
Players – Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, Sergio Garcia, Tyrell Hatton, Rory McIlroy, Francesco Molinari, Alex Noren, Thorbjorn Olesen, Ian Poulter, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose & Henrik Stenson
Scores – Friday Morning Fourballs
Rose / Rahm def by Finau / Koepka 1up
McIlroy / Olesen def by Johnson / Fowler 4&2
Casey / Hatton def by Thomas / Spieth 1up
Molinari / Fleetwood 3&1 def Woods / Reed
Scores – Friday Afternoon Foursomes
Stenson / Rose 3&2 def Johnson / Fowler
Poulter / McIlroy 4&2 def Watson / Simpson
Garcia / Noren 5&4 def Mickelson / DeChambeau
Molinari / Fleetwood 5&4 def Thomas / Spieth
Match Ups – Saturday Morning Fourballs
Garcia / McIlroy v Finau / Koepka
Casey / Hatton v Johnson / Fowler
Molinari / Fleetwood v Woods / Reed
Poulter / Rahm v Thomas / Spieth
There’s a lot of golf left.
