Opening foursomes shock for Europe
America pulled out all the stops at the Hazeltine National Golf Course in Minnesota this morning to whitewash Europe in the opening foursomes of the 41st Ryder Cup by winning all four matches.
With four holes still to play, Europe were two-up in one of the matches: English rookie Andy Sullivan dove-tailing splendidly with former world number one from Northern Ireland Rory McIlroy. On the closing holes, amid the hysteria of the thousands of Ryder Cup fans swarming around the course in Chaska, they allowed their lead to slip through their fingers. A bitter blow for Europe as they eventually went on to lose by one hole to Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer (Germany) stood their ground against Zach Johnson and Jimmy Walker until the American’s launched a counter attack on the back nine winning five consecutive holes for a 4&2 victory.
Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed were too strong for Henrik Stenson (Sweden) and Justin Rose (England) picking up another point for America, 3&2.
Lee Westwood, with his ten Ryder Cup appearances, partnered by the on-form Belgian rookie Thomas Pieters, faced an uphill struggle in the opening foursomes. The Europeans never managed to recover after going five down in the first eight holes. World number two Dustin Johnson and Olympic bronze medal winner in Rio Matt Kuchar scored the first point for America with their 5&4 win.
Master-stroke by Captain Love
Not to be outdone by the number of vice-captains in the European Team, American Ryder Cup Captain Davis Love III, announced, rather surprisingly, a fifth left-hand man at the beginning of this week. Quite literally, in fact! Two time Masters Champion and left-handed golfer Bubba Watson joins a class collection of vice-captains: Tom Lehman, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods.
European Captain Darren Clarke has surrounded himself with a squad of vice-captains full of grit and Ryder Cup experience: Thomas Bjorn, Padraig Harrington, Paul Lawrie, Sam Torrance and “Mister Ryder Cup”, as he has become known over the years for his passionate play, Ian Poulter.
Here’s a reminder of America’s last four additions to the team – the Captain’s Picks: Rickie Fowler, J. B. Holmes, Matt Kuchar and his final wildcard just five days ago, the very hot Ryan Moore.
Europe’s impressive turnaround
Europe still has some lost ground to recover from the early Ryder Cup years. The history books reveal that from the first official edition in 1927, the victory tally is strongly in America’s favour: USA 25 – Europe/Great Britain & Ireland 13. However, if we look at the results since 1979, when we began to field a European team, it’s an impressively different story: Europe 8 – USA 7, plus one tied match.
Olympic revenge
The next four matches are now in progress: The Friday Afternoon Four-balls. So I recommend you tuck yourself up for a great night’s viewing on the box! I’ll be keeping a watchful eye on the ‘Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar match versus Rory McIlroy and Thomas Pieters’. Rather intriguing to see Kuchar, the Olympic bronze medal winner against the Belgian rookie Pieters, who came fourth in the Rio Olympics. This could be a real nail-biter! Then there’s also Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello making his Ryder Cup debut this afternoon alongside experienced fellow countryman, Sergio Garcia. They take on J. B. Holmes and Ryan Moore. With the seven-hour time difference with Holland, guess it’s going to be a late night!
Wendy Hoad
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PICTURED: Zach Johnson and Jimmy Walker celebrate their winning foursomes point for America.