Farmingdale, NY – one thing we learned from the beating of Europe’s Ryder Friday morning?
The Ryder Cup is not broken.
It has been a ridiculous run for European semi -year confusion in the US. Not because one pair continues to win – but because HOUSES The team does, and in convincing fashion. Five glasses have passed and a dozen years from the last victory of the visiting team. Hell, have passed five cups and a dozen years since the team away ended up closer than Five points down. Here’s how those cups went:
2014 (Scotland): 16.5-11.5, Europe
2016 (Minnesota): 17-11, US
2018 (France): 17.5-10.5, Europe
2021 (Wisconsin): 19-9, USA
2023 (Italy): 16.5-11.5, Europe
Is this a problem? Is it really? I don’t think so. I think it’s an interesting trend and the type of things that makes a victory away far more impressive. It is evidence of the power of the home field and the advantage of fans at home, as well as a good dose of chance; Patrick Cantlay would remind you That we are seeing an interesting model, but be careful that it is not too much sample size. I will join it there; I would like to match closer but this is not a real issue.
Still, we are in the Age Fix of Sports Media, where everything can be selected in a column, a podcast segment or a ticking video, even if it was not broken to begin. So, instead of riding the Ryder Cup landings and ups, there has been a call to change its format, its rules, its governance – SOMETHING to flatten the playing field. Captains and organizers have been shameless on the subject.
So on Friday morning, when the squad rejected the local team, it was an effective reminder that we would be better off sitting back and taking them all. This is Golf. Everything is possible.
In the first game of the day, Bryson Dechambeau opened a star-lit spigot by puming the driver on dogleg, directly in green, sending fans waiting to a roar-and another when he made Putt for Birdie. But that was the first and last hole they won; Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton linked the match to a principle in no.7, Birdied No. 8 and placed the match out of the birds at 12, 13 and 14 along the way for a 4-and-3 win.
In the second match of the day, no. 1 World Scottie Scheffler and no. 3 Russell Henley faced Ludwig Aberg and Matthew Fitzpatrick, the 1-7 Ryder-Cup record. But the last duo made eight birds in 15 holes to win 5 and 3, a shocking rise of the highest US duo.
In the third match of the day, Americans were overloaded on paper and personally classified; Rory Mcilroy and Tommy Fleetwood won the 1st hole and never looked back, building a 4-up lead through six holes and beating the brakes from Collin Morikawa and Harris English, 5 and 4.
Through three matches, no one saw the 16th. It was a blow of historical proportion – the most prevailing beginning, with some measures, in 74 years of Ryder Cup competition. Through another lens it was unprecedented: Europe had never won the first three games of a Ryder Cup held in the US and while it is credible that the US would accumulate from 3-1 below, would run the table on Friday afternoon, would pour it on Saturday and Coast for victory on Sunday, as Europe did not lose its open session. Most likely is a close match, narrative, or a Sunday winner-or a win.
