Europe thwarts U.S. morning rally at Ryder Cup

GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy – Every time the door opened just a crack, Europe slammed it shut in the U.S. Team’s face.

In a nice way.

After putting on an absolute clinic on Day 1, the task for the home team was simple: Don’t give the U.S. Team any hope. Europe accomplished that as Ludvig Åberg and Viktor Hovland creamed out-of-sorts Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler by the record Foursomes score of 9 and 7, a match that was over early and had fans wondering if there’d been a glitch.

Was that the Junior Ryder Cup scoreboard?

Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas finally started finding the fairways in the lead match to make a little back-nine run – birdie on 11, eagle on 12 – but Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy let them gain no ground and in fact extended their lead, going eagle, eagle to go 3-up. The Americans birdied 13 and 16 to close the gap to 1-up but bogeyed 17 as Europe won 2 and 1.

To be sure, Europe is crushing the U.S. as nicely as possible. On the 12th hole, which occupies some of the highest ground at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club and overlooks much of Rome, Thomas walked stride for stride next to McIlroy, chatting amiably, and you were reminded that this is largely a competition between two groups of golfers based in South Florida.

And it wasn’t as if there were no highlights for the U.S. With Europe making sure it would take something magical for the Americans to win a match, Brian Harman and Max Homa conjured it, going 7 under for seven holes on the back nine – eagles at 12 and 16 – to thump Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka, 4 and 2. It was nearly noon Saturday, the first time the U.S. had won any match.

By this time the score line read Europe 8.5 and U.S. 2.5, with the Americans’ only hope to avoid losing even more ground resting on Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele in the anchor match. They eagled 12, and birdied 13 and 14 to tie Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm, but Hatton converted a birdie on 16 and Schauffele couldn’t match from 7 feet. Europe was 1-up again.

When Rahm hit his tee shot to within inches at the par-3 17th, Europe was guaranteed at least a half a point, ensuring the home team would win the session to extend its already formidable lead. And although Cantlay hit his own stellar tee shot, Schauffele missed again from roughly the same distance, and Europe won that match, too, 2 and 1.

It was, for the home side, an embarrassment of riches. Europe had won the session, 3-1, to bolster its lead to 9.5–2.5. Even a U.S. sweep in the afternoon Four-ball, which seemed unlikely, would leave Europe in total command going into the Sunday Singles. The U.S. Team had shown signs of life, finally, but not enough of it, and Europe was there to parry.

With Europe needing to win just 5 points in the remaining 16 matches to reclaim the Ryder Cup, the course set-up and the crowd were still on their side, and now the math was, too.