(Guidonia Montecelio, Italy) The Europeans have a five-point lead and history on their side at the Ryder Cup. No team has overcome such a large deficit after tackling individual matchups. The United States has never won on the road in front of a cheering crowd in 30 years.
The tension that reigned Saturday night conveyed a different story.
Patrick Cantlay, without a cap but with a lot of courage, made birdies on his last three holes to inflict his first defeat on Rory McIlroy on the Marco Simone course. The final putt cleared the 45-foot distance and pumped up the rest of the American team – maybe too much.
McIlroy didn’t appreciate it when Joe LaCava, Cantlay’s caddy, joined in the celebration as the Northern Irishman and Matt Fitzpatrick both faced putts for birdies to level the score. McIlroy later had to be restrained near the cottage as arguments over this behavior continued.
“He politely asked Joe to move over. He was in his line of sight,” Europe captain Luke Donald said.
“He stood there, didn’t move for a while and kept waving his cap. So I think Rory was shocked by that. »
United States captain Zach Johnson blamed Ryder Cup passion for the incident. Regardless, the moment created a spark in a Ryder Cup otherwise dominated by Europeans.
In the morning, they easily won the competition by alternating blows, helped by the most overwhelming victory in the history of the tournament to the point of making Scottie Scheffler cry.
And even after Cantlay’s courageous performance at the end of the day, Europe held a lead of 10.5 points to 5.5 points, heading into the 12 individual clashes scheduled for this Sunday.
Cantlay provided a glimmer of hope to Americans.
“If there’s a tournament in the world that’s all about momentum, it’s this one,” Johnson said.
One fact remains: momentum still has a lot of work to do on the Marco Simone course.
“Look, we’re in a great position: five points ahead going into the individual clashes at home,” Donald analyzed. “I like where we are. I like the atmosphere in the locker room. »
Scheffler will face Jon Rahm in the opening match this Sunday. This will be a resumption of their duel at Whistling Straits in 2021, when the American started the clash with four consecutive birdies, en route to an easy victory.
Europe must collect just four points from these 12 duels to regain possession of the trophy.
Johnson did not go so far as to repeat Ben Crenshaw’s famous speech (“I have a good feeling about this”) on the eve of the final day in Brookline, in 1999, when the Americans erased a setback of 10-6 to finally win.
“We have 12 guys. We have 12 points. I believe every guy on my team can earn a point. I’ll stick to that. »
However, the overall picture remains blue – the official color of the European team – and perilous.
Once again, the Europeans dominated the American team during the alternating stroke matches on Saturday morning. And no tandem has done it with as much impact as Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Åberg. They needed just 11 holes to defeat Scheffler and Brooks Koepka, in 2 hours and 20 minutes.
The victory by a final score of 9 and 7 was the most overwhelming of any match scheduled for 18 holes in Ryder Cup history. Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player, was seen wiping away tears while watching the afternoon’s matches.
Max Homa and Brian Harman, the British Open champion, provided the only victory for the United States on Saturday morning.
They played together again in the afternoon, and Homa made five birdies, an eagle and a par which confirmed the duo’s victory against Tommy Fleetwood and Nicolai Højgaard in the two-ball, best-ball format.
Europe continues to get the most out of its best golfers. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton defeated Cantlay and Schauffele in alternating blows and finished the matches in tandem with a 2-0-1 record. McIlroy contributed a three-pointer.
Justin Rose, the eldest of these matches, at 43, collected a win and a draw while serving as a guide to rookie Robert MacIntyre.
Americans ? Homa, making his Ryder Cup debut, is the only member of the team to have participated in all four sessions.
In the back-to-back matches, Thomas and Jordan Spieth quickly found themselves facing a significant deficit that they were never able to overcome, before losing to Rose and MacIntyre in the two-ball, best-ball format.
It’s almost a comeback after the edition presented two years ago at Whistling Straits, when the Americans built a comfortable 11-5 lead, en route to a record 19-9 thrashing.
This is where the tournament was heading, until Cantlay’s important putt.
“I hope we have a glimmer of hope and can build on this session to try and get a big win tomorrow,” Cantlay said.
