Defending Ryder Cup champions, the United States, fought back in the Saturday afternoon fourballs to take a reduced deficit into Sunday’s deciding singles matches against a rampant Europe in Rome after looking like they would cave in to the relentless pressure mounted by the hosts in the morning foursomes.
Three wins in the afternoon meant that the Americans go into Sunday with a 5.5 to 10.5 scoreline, which also means that Europe need four points from the 12 available in the singles to regain the trophy they had lost in humiliating fashion at Whistling Straits two years ago.
The United States needs to reach a total of 14 points to retain the 44th Ryder Cup. Eight and a half points is what the singes will have to fetch at the very least and there is no doubt the final point on Saturday’s fourballs with Patrick Cantlay sinking a mighty birdie putt would have been a huge boost ahead of the weekend.
Records too continued to fall with the Nordic Alliance – Viktor Hovland of Norway and Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg – teaming up to inflict the heaviest defeat in Ryder Cup history on world number one Scottie Scheffler and PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka in the morning’s foursomes.
The margin was a scarcely-believable 9&7 which essentially means the Scandinavians did not lose a single hole to the Americans, winning the match with seven holes of 18 still to go. Hovland and Aberg won the first five holes, were 6-up after just seven holes and then won four in a row from the eighth hole to make Ryder Cup history.
“We were meeting two strong guys – number one in the world and five-time major champion. We tried to not give them anything,” Hovland said later. “We played really solid and obviously didn’t meet a sharp Scottie and Brooks but we played some really nice golf today.”
Added Ryder Cup rookie Aberg, “I don’t even know what to say or where to start. Obviously an unbelievable day but most important we enjoyed it, we had fun and felt the crowd support, which was really important to us. Looking forward to doing it all again this afternoon.”
Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton beat Cantlay and Xander Schauffele 2&1 before Fleetwood Mac (Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood) got past Jordan Speith and Justin Thomas by the same margin. The only point for the US came from Max Homa and Brian Harman, who combined to beat Sepp Straka and Shane Lowry 4&2.
The 3-1 score for the US in the afternoon matches including one snatched from McIlroy and Matthew Fitzpatrick by Cantlay and Wyndham Clark on the very last hole of the day would have come as some relief for beleaguered US captain Zach Johnson. The close match also sparked a confrontation between McIlroy and Cantlay’s caddie, the Northern Irishman apparently annoyed at the celebrations over the birdie putt made by the American player.
Said Europe captain Luke Donald later, “I've talked to Rory. He politely asked Joe to move aside. He was in his line of vision. He stood there and didn't move for a while and continued to wave the hat, so I think Rory was upset about that."
Added his US counterpart: “A celebration is a celebration. With a big putt like that on 18 at the Ryder Cup, I think you have every right to celebrate with your team and that's exactly what I saw.”
Sam Burns and Collin Morikawa sparked the US fightback with a 4&3 thrashing of the Nordic Alliance that had swamped Scheffler and Koepka in the morning, and Max Homa and Open champion Brian Harman were never lead in a 2&1 win over Fleetwood and Nicolai Hojgaard.
With all to play for on either side, the singles will as almost always be edge-of-the-seat stuff.
Sunday pairings (Europe names first)
Jon Rahn vs Scottie Scheffler
Viktor Hovland vs Collin Morikawa
Justin Rose vs Partick Cantlay
Rory McIlroy vs Sam Burns
Matthew Fitzpatrick vs Max Homa
Tyrrell Hatton vs Brian Harman
Ludvig Aberg vs Brooks Koepka
Sepp Straka vs Justin Thomas
Nicolai Hojgaard vs Xander Schauffele
Shane Lowry vs Jordan Speith
Tommy Fleetwood vs Rickie Fowler
Robert Macintyre vs Wyndham Clark