Farmingdale (United States) (AFP) – Powered by their best away start, Europe golfers owned a 5.5-2.5 lead over the United States as Saturday’s morning foursomes matches teed off at the 45th Ryder Cup. Europe captured the first three matches on US soil for the first time in grabbing a 3-1 foursomes lead Friday, and those same four duos returned for the visitors on day two at Bethpage Black.
“To create a little bit of history with the three matches and how they were won was great. History is nice to accomplish,” Europe captain Luke Donald said. Spain’s Jon Rahm and England’s Tommy Fleetwood each won twice on Friday, in foursomes (alternate shot) and in afternoon four-balls (best ball). World number two Rory McIlroy, who completed a career Grand Slam by winning the Masters in April, settled for a triumph and a draw when he missed an 11-foot birdie putt for the win on the last hole in four-balls.
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Donald stuck with his foursomes tandems for Saturday, juggling only the order of the duos. “It’s hard to break up those winning partnerships, so you try and put them out again and hope they continue,” Donald said. “We have a lot of faith that those eight were statistically, and everything else that goes into the partnership, the strongest we had.”
England’s Matt Fitzpatrick and Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg, who humbled top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and third-ranked Russell Henley 5&3, opened against Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Young. Both Scheffler and DeChambeau went 0-2 on day one. McIlroy and Fleetwood meet Harris English and Collin Morikawa in a rematch of a 5&4 Europe romp. “We’re really comfortable with those two players,” US captain Keegan Bradley said of Morikawa and English. “Excited who they are playing. Be an exciting match. We have a lot of confidence in them.”
Rahm, 7-0 in Cup pairs matches since 2018, and England’s Tyrrell Hatton dispatched DeChambeau and Justin Thomas 4&3 in Friday’s opener. They face Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay. Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre and Norway’s Viktor Hovland, who lost Friday, get another chance against a redemption-seeking Scheffler-Henley duo. “Didn’t make the putts I needed to and didn’t really keep the momentum going with the ball-striking on the back nine either,” Henley said.
Keeping the world number one winless was a plus for Europe. “We just didn’t hole enough putts early. We had some chances,” Scheffler said. “The putts just didn’t fall.” Bradley hoped small changes could spark a fightback with support from a vocal home crowd. “We’re sticking to our plan. We’re not going to panic,” Bradley said. “We knew this was going to be tough. We didn’t expect to come in here and this not be a difficult week.”
Scheffler, whose six wins this year included the PGA Championship and British Open, slid to 2-4-3 in Ryder Cup matches. “He’s excited to go out and play his best golf,” Bradley said. “We’re not worried about Scottie Scheffler.” The Europeans need 14 points from 28 matches to retain the trophy while the Americans must capture 14.5 points to take back the Cup. No road team has won since Europe’s 2012 “Miracle at Medinah.”
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