Jon Rahm could not miss. He was practicing his putts on the floodlit practice green early on Friday morning before he and Tyrrell Hatton faced Sam Burns and Scottie Scheffler in the opening match of the 44th Ryder Cup at Marco Simone. An orange moon hung on the horizon. Rahm filled the cup repeatedly, making sure not to miss anything along the way.
In the initial Foursomes on Day 1, things continued as usual when the sun rose. Suddenly, everything went blue, much like in Europe. Europe is up 4-0 after winning all four games.
This was only Europe’s first Ryder Cup opening-session victory, despite Luke Donald, the team’s captain this week, emphasizing the value of taking an early lead.
” We have just discussed getting off to quick beginnings this week. Luke has pounded it into us to play three-hole matches in practice, three holes, go again, three holes, go again. We were prepared to play from the first tee shot, as is evident by the way everyone played.” said Rory McIlroy who teamed up with Tommy Fleetwood to beat Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, 2 and 1.
In the frequently difficult alternate-shot format, Rahm and Hatton produced four birdies and an eagle to take control and defeat world No. 1 Scheffler and No. 3 Burns, 4 and 3.
As they cruised to an equally comfortable 4-and-3 victory over Brian Harman and Max Homa, FedExCup champion Viktor Hovland pitched in for a birdie at the opening hole, and teammate Ludvig Aberg, the PGA TOUR U product who has become a sensation since turning pro, hit critical putts.
Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa were defeated by Shane Lowry and Ryder Cup debutant Sepp Straka, 2 and 1, after the duo avoided a bogey at the opening hole, built a 4-up lead, and held on.
Cantlay and Schauffele, the most accomplished team for the United States, were left in the anchor match. They were the only thing keeping the United States from losing the first session entirely. But they were unable to defeat McIlroy and Fleetwood, two European heavyweights.
Cantlay and Schauffele sprayed the ball off the tee, and while they bogeyed 14 to trim Europe’s lead to one up, an unexpected turn of events occurred on 15, when Fleetwood saved par from 20 feet and Schauffele missed from three feet to restore Europe’s 2-up lead with three holes remaining.
With a birdie on hole 16, the Americans once more closed the gap, but McIlroy delivered the winning blow, his tee shot setting up a tap-in birdie on the 17th par-3 hole. He and Fleetwood triumphed 2 to 1.
When playing in foursomes for the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, Cantlay and Schauffele had a perfect 5-0 record.
After successive blowouts in favor of the home team, the story going into this week was that we were due for a close Ryder Cup and that the Americans, who had won by 10 points at home two years prior, could win on the road for the first time since 1993.
That strategy and U.S. Captain Zach Johnson’s carefully selected pairings started to fall apart in just about ten minutes.
Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka, who were on the first tee watching the video screen, high-fived in the midst of the din as Hovland holed out for birdie at the first to elicit the first raucous cheer for the home team.
Rahm, who has won four times on the PGA TOUR this year, made a putt from off the green up ahead to ace the third hole. He had only just begun.
He relinquished a birdie on the seventh par-3, which would have won the hole, and holed out from a long way off the green to split the tenth hole. He and Hatton completed the front nine in 3-under par, with birdies at the 11th and 12th par-5s.
Meanwhile, the Americans appeared disoriented, as they frequently do when traveling.
Scheffler and Burns, though close friends, did not have a successful Presidents Cup, finishing 0-2-1 overall and 0-2 in Foursomes. Johnson had taken a risk by choosing to send them out in the lead group.
Against Rahm and Hatton, they had no chance.
Homa struggled in Match 2 to recapture the form that helped him go 4-0 at the Presidents Cup the previous year, and Harman was not the same player who won The Open Championship in July.
They barely put up a fight, shooting 1 over par, giving the home crowd, which featured tennis player Novak Djokovic walking behind in the European flag a lot to cheer about.
The opening session does not determine the outcome; last week, despite being down 4-0, Europe still won the Solheim Cup. But this one hurt for a U.S. Team that already had a steep climb ahead of it. Since joining in 1979, Europe has a 91.5-81.5 advantage in the Foursomes.
“All of us will need to change in various ways. We’ll be alright. Not giving a damn. Yes, I am not concerned. Our group is strong. These young men will compete fiercely in the upcoming games.” stated Schauffele, who will go out with Morikawa in Four-ball play in the afternoon.
