Saturday Afternoon Ryder Cup Recap: Session Split As USA Takes An 11-5 Lead Into Sunday
Finally Europe put up a bit of a fight. It looked like it was going to be their afternoon for most of it, but our guys were able to scratch and claw their way to a split. I suppose it’s a missed opportunity to bury these guys, but you’ll take splits the rest of the way with the lead they’ve built. All they gotta do is find 3.5 points tomorrow and the Ryder Cup is ours. But first… the matches…
Match 1: Shane Lowry Grabs A Full Point With A Clutch Putt On 18
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The scorecard on this one looks pretty boring, but this was a helluva match. Shane Lowry was unconscious for most of it and came up huge with the clutch putt to seal it on 18
Despite that going against the Americans, ya still gotta admit that was an awesome moment. Finau and Harry battled their balls off to take this match to the very end. All things considered, this was the only match in all of team play that Europe won without Rahm involved, so you can’t be too mad.
Speaking of….
Match 2: Jon Rahm Is Ridiculous
I'm so sick of this guy. He's a machine. If Jon Rahm didn't exist, this thing would already be over. He hardly makes mistakes. When he does, he pours it in from 25+ feet anyway. That putt he made on 16 was such a dagger. It looked like there was a window for Spieth to make a 10-foot birdie and win the hole to tie the match, and Rahm swooped in out of nowhere with that bomb for birdie
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Of course, Spieth missed the putt and the match was essentially over. That was a major storyline of this match. It was there for the Americans to win, but Spieth just could not get the putter going. This one especially hurt.
The good news is tomorrow Rahm can only impact 1 of 12 matches. Man am I sick of that guy.
Match 3: Scheffler and DeChambeau Ball Out On The Back To Earn A Full Point
Chalk this up as a match that was very much in the crosshairs of the Europeans, but they just couldn’t bring it home. Scheffler’s putt on 15 was electric and exactly where they needed to take command of this match.
There were a lot of doubters about Stricker’s decision to put Scheffler on this team. Not me. Don’t care if he hasn’t won on Tour, he makes birdies by the bucket and has been a great complement and teammate to Bryson. Huge win to stall Europe’s momentum
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Match 4: DJ Goes 4-0 In Team Play (And Morikawa Goes 3-0)
The Europeans tried to cook up a little blast from the past with a Rory/Poulter pairing here and DJ and Morikawa squashed them like a bug. Poulter made a couple bombs early that kept this match closer than it really was, but the cream rose to the top with the Americans sweeping holes 6-8 with birdies.
What's surprising to me is the way Rory has failed to show up so far, especially in fourballs. He's a freewheeling birdie-making kind of guy who should thrive in that format. He only made one birdie across two days. Stunning. Of course, the story here is both of these Americans going undefeated in team play. DJ was the only one who played all 4 sessions and he cleaned up, 3 of them with Morikawa as his partner. Love to see pairings have success that you can expect to put out there in future Ryder Cups.
Sunday Singles
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Gonna be honest here, figured Rahm was gonna be the first guy out to try to throw some early momentum in their corner. Suppose Padraig’s mentality is that they’re never gonna win this thing without Rory figuring it out, and it’s not like Rahm isn’t on the early side. Whatever, long haul for the Europeans. Love where we’re at. Go get em tomorrow boys.