Friday afternoon’s session at the Ryder Cup was an all-out disaster for the USA. NBC’s Johnny Milller said it was the worst he’d seen a team play in any of these match play competitions, ever. David Feherty, following Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, said they couldn’t “play a radio” and that the match was not just “hard to watch” but actually hard to watch because he couldn’t figure out where the ball was going next.
After taking a 3-1 lead in the morning four-ball format, captain Jim Furyk sent out a four-team rotation that set records for all the wrong reasons.
Europe swept its first ever Foursomes session in the history of the cup. It was their first session sweep of any kind since 1989. But it wasn’t just the sweep, it was the way in which it was done. Not a single match was close. These were all blowouts by the 9th hole. It’s the first time a team there has been a swept with all the matches won by a 3&2 margin or greater. So not a single match went past the 16th green. The session ended almost 90 minutes earlier than expected.
The European side was strong. They excel in Foursomes alternate-shot and have figured it out over these decades of dominance in the Cup. Thomas Bjorn’s lineup was perfectly suited for the format and he deserves credit for setting things up for such an afternoon run.
So credit to Europe, but the U.S. also sucked. They were miserable from the start to the merciful end. They played, for the most part, bogey golf that didn’t challenge the Europeans in any way. They were wild off the tee, sketchy around the green, and abominable with the putter. Not all is lost and the margin is just two points with with 20 more points up for grabs. But if you’re a USA supporter, there’s no positive spin to put on what we watched Friday afternoon. Here are 5 takeaways from the many American lowpoints.
1. DJ and Rickie need to at least make Europe work for it. Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler were the stars of the morning Four-ball session. They whipped Rory McIlroy and Thorbjorn Olesen to put the first point of the entire cup on the board. They had to go back out there.
Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson are a legendary pairing for Europe. But Henrik has been injured and he’s getting up there in age. It would have been nice to see DJ, ahem, the No. 1 player in the world, and Rickie actually make them work for the point.
Instead, there was a 7-hole stretch in which the Euros won four holes with simple pars. One or two are ok, but four in seven holes? The Americans were missing three-footers and never really putting up a fight. This was the critical stretch. After that run, the Euros never had to sweat it out down the back nine, where we saw Rose get a little loose in the morning session.
2. Phil, as expected, bombed in Foursomes. As a few people pointed out on Twitter, Mickelson ranks 192nd out of 193 players in driving accuracy this year on the PGA Tour. It’s an imperfect stat, but that should give you a sense that Phil is, uh, a little wild off the tee. That’s never ideal for Foursomes alternate shot.
Mickelson, who is rumored to be battling a dreaded two-way miss, decided to pull an iron on a par-5 and make it an automatic three-shot hole. The problem? He used the shorter club you choose for accuracy reasons and blasted one off the planet into the water. Can’t have it on a par-5 and that horrible play summed up just how horrible this match was for the USA.
Bryson was not good, but throwing him in alternate-shot with a wild Phil who has not looked good since the spring was not an ideal way to start a Ryder Cup career. They were 7-down through the first nine holes and nearly set a record for biggest blowout ever before Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren let them win a couple holes.
3. Bubba Watson needs to sit on the bench until Sunday. This was another easy point for the European team of Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter, who played even-par golf on the card. That’s not horrible for alternate shot, but it shouldn’t result in a stress-free rout. Rory looked horrible in the morning, but found new life with Poulter in this walk of a match.
If you weren’t blinded by Bubba’s three wins early in the season, the numbers illustrated that he was the weakest player on the U.S. roster. Webb Simpson, who has his own history of Ryder Cup shortcomings, has actually played well in recent weeks. He was not exceptional on Friday afternoon, but there’s at least some mild belief that he’s in form to contribute in this event.
Bubba? He’s not in form, is difficult to find a partner for, and has an awful record as a Ryder Cup match performer (now 1-7 in away games). He’s also under the weather. So what exactly are we going on here? I think Webb has a longer leash, although not by much, but Bubba needs to sit all day Saturday.
4. Brooks Koepka needs to play. On paper, the U.S. team is loaded and Furyk has to make some tough choices about who has to sit. It’s just hard to believe that sitting Brooks Koepka, the Player of the Year, is one of those tough choices. It’s unwise to not give everyone on the roster at least one rep before Sunday’s singles session, so it can be hard to find room.
But Bubba and Phil playing while Brooks sits, even with that 3-1 lead from the morning session, didn’t make a lot of sense. He’s arguably the best player in the world. Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose were back out there. The USA needs to ride their horses the same way and stop worrying so much about tethering them to just one partner. Play Brooks.
5. Tommy Fleetwood is a killer. We knew this going into the matches, and suspected he’d translate well to the Ryder Cup. But the way he, along with Frankie Molinari, dug out Europe’s only point in the morning against Tiger and Pat Reed gave Europe some juice. Momentum doesn’t exist except in the Ryder Cup.
He was nails again in the afternoon, putting the other star American pairing of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas on the mat by the 7th tee box. Fleetwood’s putter was hot again and Molinari is too steady to screw it up in alternate shot. Thomas and Spieth, who know each other’s games and equipment so well, needed to be better in alternate shot, too. Their putters went cold and they won just two holes in a match that didn’t even get to the 15th hole. Fleetwood is great, but a Spieth-JT team needs to be more competitive.
This morning I wrote about the sudden Golden State Warriors-like runs within a session that shift the board so fast and make the Ryder Cup so great. Just when you think you have an idea of how the session is trending, the board flips from red to blue in a matter of minutes.
That happened in the overall cup on Friday afternoon. According to the probability model from the brilliant minds at Data Golf, the USA went from a 73 percent probability at the start of Session 2 to a 33 percent probability at the end of it.
If you’re a USA fan, it was a demoralizing afternoon not just for the sweep but the blowout margin in every single match. That said, this can and probably will shift again for some stretch on Saturday. We’re not at a point to start blaming everyone for another loss in Europe. It was a brutal and frustrating session but the good news is those probability numbers can change again and Saturday morning’s session presents the more comfortable four-ball format for the USA. They just need to figure out how to break even in Foursomes.
We’re just eight points into a 28-point cup. Furyk also probably has a better sense of who he definitely wants to keep on the bench. Friday afternoon sucked, but ... deep breaths.
Here are your results from Day 1 at the Ryder Cup, which Europe leads 5-3.
Friday Four-ball — USA wins, 3-1
- Koepka & Finau (USA) vs. Rose & Rahm (EUR) — USA wins, 1-up
- Johnson & Fowler (USA) vs. McIlroy & Olesen (EUR) — USA wins, 4&2
- Spieth & Thomas (USA) vs. Casey & Hatton (EUR) — USA wins, 1-up
- Reed & Woods (USA) vs. Molinari & Fleetwood (EUR) — EUR wins, 3&1
Friday Foursomes — Europe wins, 4-0
- Johnson & Fowler (USA) vs. Rose & Stenson (EUR) — EUR wins, 3&2
- Watson & Simpson (USA) vs. McIlroy & Poulter (EUR) — EUR wins, 4&2
- Mickelson & DeChambeau (USA) vs. Garcia and Noren (EUR) — EUR wins, 5&4
- Spieth & Thomas (USA) vs. Molinari & Fleetwood (EUR) — EUR wins, 5&4