The American crowd dialed up the temperature (too much), some spectators got kicked out, and emotions boiled over for members of both teams on Saturday afternoon at Bethpage Black.
And yet, Europe withstood it all, still leading this 45th Ryder Cup big.
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry got more than they deserved from the galleries but won anyway. Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose drew the ire of their opponents but won anyway. Even with the Americans holding out hope in the last two four-ball matches, Europe will at least be five points ahead entering the 12-match Sunday singles.
Here’s how this emotional and testy Saturday afternoon four-ball session played out:
Rory McIlroy/Shane Lowry def. Justin Thomas/Cameron Young, 2 up
McIlroy and Lowry reached their breaking points with the New York crowd in this one. Extra security was called in as the heckles grew more personal and more vicious. The broadcast picked up McIlroy, who told a heckler to “shut the f— up’ in the morning session, saying, “I’m not putting until they shut up,” as spectators were counting the number of seconds it took McIlroy to play on the fourth green.
Aside from the extracurriculars, Lowry punched back at the crowd with a 20-foot eagle make at the par-5 fourth, and with McIlroy still with a 6-footer for birdie, he rolled one in from 8 feet at the par-4 fifth to put the Europeans 2 up. But the Americans wouldn’t go away. Young, arguably the Americans’ best player so far, got a hole back with a 36-foot birdie make at the par-4 seventh. Thomas then got in on the action, hooping one from 20 feet to win the par-4 ninth and tie the match.
The multiplying security quelled the crowd slightly on the back nine as the match stalled with traded pars. Finally, though, McIlroy birdied from 9 feet at the par-3 14th and Thomas missed from 6 feet to give the Europeans not only a 1-up lead but also painted the leaderboard fully blue for the first time all afternoon.
Lowry birdied three of the last four holes with McIlroy birdieing the only hole during that stretch that his partner didn’t, No. 16. That kept the Americans, who also birdied Nos. 15-17, at bay. And Lowry sealed the emotional point with a 5-foot birdie at the last.
“I’m so proud of this guy,” McIlroy said. “He was with me – he was there for me all day. I’m drained, to say the least, and he dug in big time when he had to. I chipped in when I could here and there, but the credit goes to this man today.”
Asked if some of the spectators went over the line, McIlroy shrugged it off: “It’s not for me to say. People can be their own judge of whether they took it too far or not. I’m just proud of us for being able to win today with what we had to go through.”
Tommy Fleetwood/Justin Rose def. Scottie Scheffler/Bryson DeChambeau, 3 and 2
The McIlroy match wasn’t the only one filled with drama. Hoping to unlock his two superstars, Keegan Bradley paired Scheffler and DeChambeau – and it worked early as the American duo played the first six holes in 6 under. Unfortunately for the U.S., that results in only a 1-up lead.
Rose stuck his tee ball at the par-3 third to 5 feet and birdied the hole to give he and Fleetwood the first lead of the match. DeChambeau came within inches of an albatross on the next, and he rolled in a 6-footer for birdie at the par-4 fifth to win that hole as well.
But Rose was cooking. He needed just eight putts in his first eight holes, and his 7-foot birdie at No. 7 and 21-foot birdie that he walked in at No. 8 flipped the match back to Europe, 1 up. Fleetwood earned a conceded birdie to win the par-4 10th after he hit his approach 182 yards to 10 inches and Scheffler hit the base of the flagstick with his approach, his ball instead bouncing back off the green.
DeChambeau did his best to rile up the crowd by going crazy after birdieing the par-4 11th from 12 feet; both Euros had already missed their par putts, and the loss cut their lead in half, to 1 up. But they got it right back at the par-4 12th, where Scheffler drove it into the left trees and both Euros threw darts at the hole. Rose didn’t have to putt after Fleetwood drained his 6-footer for birdie to retake the 2-up lead. Scheffler rebounded with a wedge shot to 4 feet at the par-5 13th, but Fleetwood canned a 26-footer for birdie that would tie the hole.
Rose stretched the lead to 3 up with a 16-foot birdie at the par-3 14th, and then things got testy on the 15th green as Rose told DeChambeau’s caddie, Greg Bodine, to back off as the American player-caddie duo were going through their reads while it was Rose’s turn to putt. U.S. team members took issue, and even after Rose and DeChambeau traded birdie makes, players, caddies and captains from both sides exchanged words all the way to the 16th tee.
After the Europeans closed out the match in 16 holes, DeChambeau and Scheffler declined to comment, but Rose said, “It was a shame that the match got to that point because it was actually a really great match. I was waiting to putt, the boys were obviously working on their read, obviously going through a lot of their sort of whatever, calculations and bits and pieces, so I sort of waited a few seconds and then I felt like they came up again and … I was like, ‘It’s my putt,’ right, or however I said it. Maybe I didn’t say it as politely as I could have said it in the moment, but by no means was there any disrespect or anything like that, but obviously it was taken the wrong way.
“Yeah, I don’t think we should dwell on that, honestly. I said to the boys, ‘If you want me to say, excuse me, please, then yeah, my bad.’”
J.J. Spaun/Xander Schauffele (U.S.) def. Jon Rahm/Sepp Straka, 1 up
Other than Schauffele’s eagle at the par-5 fourth hole, where he canned a 41-footer, there were few American highlights on the front nine as Straka elevated his game alongside Rahm.
After Rahm birdied the first, Straka won holes with 12-foot birdie makes at Nos. 2 and 7. Rahm then added a birdie from 8 feet at No. 9 to turn 2 up.
Spaun showed shades of Oakmont by getting a 41-footer for birdie to drop to win the par-4 10th, and it took seven holes for the U.S. to finally draw level thanks to Nos. 13-15 all being tied with birdies. Rahm missed an 8-footer for birdie at No. 17, allowing Spaun to roll in his 3-footer to tie the match.
A hole later, Spaun earned his first career Ryder Cup point by making a 3-footer for birdie at No. 18. The U.S. win knocked Rahm’s record this week to 3-1.
Read the full article here
