(Guidonia Montecelio) Team Europe has a five-point lead and history on its side at the Ryder Cup. No team has overcome such an imposing deficit when it comes to individual duels. Team USA hasn’t won on the road in front of a cheering crowd in 30 years.
The tension that reigned Saturday night conveyed a different story.
Patrick Cantlay, without a cap but with a lot of courage, made birdies on his last three holes to inflict his first defeat on Rory McIlroy on the Marco Simone course. The final putt went 45 feet and pumped up the rest of Team USA — maybe too much.
PHOTO CARL RECINE, REUTERS
Patrick Cantlay
McIlroy didn’t appreciate the fact that Joe LaCava, Cantlay’s caddy, joined the celebration as the Northern Irishman and Matt Fitzpatrick both faced putts for birdies to tie the match. McIlroy later had to be restrained near the cottage as the behavioral disputes continued.
“He politely asked Joe to move. He was in his line of sight,” said Team Europe captain Luke Donald.
“He stood there, didn’t move for a while and kept waving the cap. So, I think Rory was shocked by that. »
Team USA captain Zach Johnson blamed the incident on passion for the Ryder Cup. Whatever it was, that moment created a spark at a Ryder Cup otherwise dominated by Europeans.
In the morning, they easily won the session in alternating shots, helped by the most overwhelming victory in the history of the tournament to the point of making Scottie Scheffler cry.
And even after Cantlay’s courageous performance at the end of the day, Team Europe held a lead of 10.5 points to 5.5 points on the eve of the 12 individual duels on the program on Sunday.
Cantlay provided a glimmer of hope to Americans.
“If there’s a tournament in the world that’s all about momentum, it’s this one,” Johnson said.
One fact remains: momentum still has a lot of work to do on the Marco Simone course.
” Listen ; we are in an excellent position; five points ahead before tackling the individual duels at home,” analyzed Donald. “I like where we are. I like the feeling in the locker room. »
Scheffler will face Jon Rahm in the opener on Sunday. It will be a resumption of their duel at Whistling Straits in 2021, when the American started the clash with four consecutive birdies, en route to an easy victory.
Team Europe must collect only four points in these 12 duels to regain possession of the trophy.
Johnson did not go so far as to repeat Ben Crenshaw’s famous speech (“I have a good feeling about this”) on the eve of the final day in Brookline, in 1999, when the Americans erased a setback of 10-6 to finally win.
“We have 12 guys. We have 12 points. I believe every guy on my team can win a point. I’ll stick to that. »
A historic victory
However, the overall picture remains blue – the official color of Team Europe – and perilous.
Once again, Team Europe dominated the American team during the back-and-forth matches on Saturday morning. And no tandem has done it with as much impact as Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg. They needed just 11 holes — two hours 20 minutes — to defeat Scheffler and Brooks Koepka.
The victory by a final score of 9-and-7 is the most overwhelming in any match scheduled for 18 holes in Ryder Cup history. Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player, was seen wiping away tears as he watched the afternoon’s matches.
Max Homa and Brian Harman, the British Open champion, provided the only victory for the United States on Saturday morning.
PHOTO CARL RECINE, REUTERS
Max Homa and Brian Harman won the Americans’ first match.
They played together again in the afternoon, and Homa made five birdies, an eagle and a par which confirmed the duo’s victory against Tommy Fleetwood and Nicolai Hojgaard in a two-ball, best-ball format.
Team Europe continues to get the most out of its best golfers. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton defeated Cantlay and Schauffele in alternating blows and completed the tandem matches with a 2-0-1 record. McIlroy contributed a three-pointer.
Justin Rose, the oldest in these matches, at 43, collected a win and a draw while serving as a guide to rookie Robert MacIntyre.
Americans ? Homa, making his Ryder Cup debut, is the only member of the team to have participated in all four sessions.
In the back-to-back matches, Thomas and Jordan Spieth quickly found themselves facing a significant deficit that they were never able to overcome, before losing to Rose and MacIntyre in the two-ball, best-ball format.
It’s almost a comeback from the edition presented two years ago at Whistling Straits, when the Americans built a comfortable 11-5 lead, en route to a record 19-9 thrashing.
This is what the tournament was heading towards, until Cantlay’s important putt.
“I hope we have a glimmer of hope and can build on this session to try and get a big win tomorrow,” Cantlay said.