FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Just after 11 a.m. Friday, Air Force One flew over Bethpage Black and did not immediately make a U-turn. There will be four more sessions of the Ryder Cup, and whether this instills optimism or dread in the American side is up for debate.
Normally when a morning goes this poorly, you can at least blame the previous night’s tequila. The U.S. sent bombers Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas out first, presumably to rouse the crowd and hopefully rattle the Europeans, and opened with a birdie to go one-up. Then they got smoked. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and his familiar playing partner, Russell Henley, also got smoked. Harris English and Collin Morikawa: also smoked. This was not what Americans had in mind when we invented barbecue, or claimed to.
It fell to Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay to go where no American man had gone before: The 16th tee. None of the other three matches lasted that long.
Schauffele and Cantlay held on to beat Viktor Hovland and Robert MacIntyre on the 18th hole, salvaging a point for Keegan Bradley’s crew.
Lost in all the talk about home-crowd advantage at the people’s course is this reality: The U.S. brought 12 terrific golfers to Bethpage, and Europe brought a winning Ryder Cup team. Eleven of the 12 Europeans who won in 2023 are back, and the lone exception, Rasmus Højgaard, took his brother’s place. Europe also kept captain Luke Donald. This team should have been favored, regardless of locale.
This is reality, too: The crowd can help the Americans, but it is unlikely to shake the Europeans. Donald made a sneaky-bold statement with his opening pairing: He sent his two most temperamental players, Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, out first, surely knowing that they would likely face DeChambeau and Thomas, who played together in practice rounds and love firing up the crowds. Rahm and Hatton lost the first hole but not their poise.
In the afternoon, Bradley played some understandable defense, pairing the four players who sat out Friday morning with a big-name veteran. Three of those players (J.J. Spaun, Ben Griffin, Cam Young) are Ryder Cup rookies. In the last match of the afternoon, Cantlay and Rory McIlroy will rekindle the feistiest rivalry from 2023. But McIlroy gets to play with his old friend Shane Lowry. Cantlay’s partner is Sam Burns. Anything can happen in this match and the others, but the Europeans should be confident. Since 2023, they have outscored the U.S. 13.5-6.5 in foursomes and fourball—and yes, despite the two-year gap, this is a fair stat, because this is basically the same European team.
The Americans can still do this. But winning the Ryder Cup is going to be harder than it was at Hazeltine in 2016 or at Whistling Straits in 2021. It will be harder than Americans usually believe it will be. Europe started rolling on a Friday morning in 2023 and hasn’t stopped yet.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Europe Picks Up Right Where It Left Off From the Last Ryder Cup.
