FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — The U.S. finally got a point out of one of its top players but it wasn’t nearly enough Saturday morning at Bethpage Black.
[SI at Ryder Cup Live — Morning Foursomes Results and Analysis]
Instead of cutting into the Europeans’ Ryder Cup lead, the Americans actually gave up more ground in the morning foursomes competition, losing the session 3–1 and now facing an 8½ to 3½ deficit going into afternoon four-ball play.
The U.S. trailed 5½ to 2½ entering play Saturday and now faces a huge and perhaps insurmountable lead with 16 points still available in the competition.
Once again, the duos of Jon Rahm-Tyrrell Hatton and Rory McIlroy-Tommy Fleetwood shined for the Europeans, both winning their matches against the Americans before getting to the 17th hole.
Those teams have combined to go 8–0—4–0 at each competition—across the last two Ryder Cups as Europe has dominated foursomes play.
Rahm is 3-0 this year as is Fleetwood. Hatton is 2–0. McIlroy is 2–0–1. The European stars are coming through in a big way.
Meanwhile, the Americans can’t get the best out of their best. Bryson DeChambeau won his match with Cameron Young, 4 and 2, over Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Åberg to give the Americans some hope.
But world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was once again frustrated, his last-hole approach shot that sailed off line and into the rough indicative of this Ryder Cup. Scheffler has been ahead in his matches for all of one hole and he dropped to 0–3 this week.
The team of Collin Morikawa and Harris English will also come under scrutiny. They struggled on Friday morning in foursomes but captain Keegan Bradley went with them again Saturday, and they ran into McIlroy and Fleetwood, led for just one hole and were 4 down at one point.
Bradley decided to put DeChambeau and Scheffler together in four-ball Saturday afternoon, a somewhat desperate move to get the top players going. They were partners at Whistling Straits two years ago.
But the Americans need more than them. Anything less than a 3–1 afternoon advantage will make Sunday nothing short of a European coronation. And even that would leave the Americans three points shy and needing a relative miracle during the 12 singles matches.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as U.S. Ryder Cup Team Falls Further Behind, Loses Saturday Morning Session.
