Could ‘hat-gate’ derail Europe’s march to glory?
‘Insulted’ McIlroy flips his lid and takes it into the car park with cocky American caddie
THE finest golfers of the US started the day as a joke and they ended it as a punchline. But hats off to those Americans — they are not giving up this Ryder Cup to Europe without a fight.
If they are to pull it off, and what a sizeable ‘if’ that is, it will require the biggest capitulation this contest has ever seen.
Europe will take a lead of five points into the 12 singles matches today, which happens to be the same lead they brought into the second day, but the US now have a modicum of momentum after taking the afternoon fourballs 3-1, having lost the morning foursomes by an identical score.
And yet that is barely half the story — the rest belongs to the surreal tale of Patrick Cantlay’s absent hat and how it was linked to a furious altercation involving Rory McIlroy in a car park at the close of play.
Videos circulated of the world No2 going berserk and angrily pointing fingers before being bundled into a vehicle by Shane Lowry. The object of his rage was Joe LaCava, the former caddie to Tiger Woods who has been carrying Cantlay’s bag here.
That flashpoint related to an incident on the 18th green, when Cantlay holed a monster putt of 43 foot under the dying light to snatch a superb comeback win alongside Wyndham Clark against McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick.
At this stage it is necessary to know Cantlay had not been wearing a team hat, which is at the heart of a gloriously absurd saga, because it was reported earlier in the day that the American was doing so in protest against the lack of pay for players in the Ryder Cup.
Those claims triggered a day of Cantlay being mocked by the partisan crowd at Marco Simone for his perceived greed. Most of it was good humoured, and what started with chants of ‘whip-round for Patrick’ at the second tee, developed into the mass waving of hats in the grandstands as he made his way round. That was all rather fun, but when he nailed the putt, LaCava embarked on a retaliation by waving his own hat at the crowds, leading him to walk across McIlroy’s line before he had a chance to putt from 23 feet to halve the match.
McIlroy was rightly angry about that, as were his team-mates Lowry and Justin Rose, and once he missed the putt the deeper drama soon erupted in the car park. Quite amusing in its way, but such are the passions of this gathering and the storms that it often inserts into teacups. If any earnestness does need to be injected into those circumstances, it concerns the harmony of Team USA, which has performed dismally this week, barring that final session win. Indeed, a key part of ‘hat-gate’ is that Cantlay is said to be at the heart of a split within the US locker room — claims Cantlay dismissed alongside five team-mates on Saturday night.
He was far less convincing when asked if he believed they should be paid beyond the $200,000 each US golfer is given for charity donations of their choice. ‘It’s not about that. It’s just about Team USA,’ he said. Asked about the hat, he gave the somewhat laughable answer that those they were supplied with ‘didn’t fit’, which felt about as credible as Zach Johnson’s excuse on Friday night that their openingday hiding of 6.5-1.5 was partially down to an outbreak of chest congestion. Choking might have been more apt.
In any case, they are loosely back in this match, which seemed impossible when they lost the Saturday morning foursomes 3-1, slipping to 9.5-2.5. Best among those early results was the record 9&7 walloping inflicted on Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler by Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg.
To issue that kind of hammering on a five-time major winner and the world No 1 was remarkable and indicative of the respective fortunes of these teams. Koepka was promptly benched for the second time this week — what an awful Cup he has had — and Scheffler was reduced to tears. McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood also beat Justin Thomas and the flailing Jordan Spieth, with Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton extending their fiery bromance by seeing off a comeback by Xander Schauffele and Cantlay.
The single flicker of light was the pairing of Brian Harman and Max Homa, with the latter having been the US star of a grim week. They comfortably beat Lowry and Sepp Straka — the first outright point that Zach Johnson’s team had won in two days.
By the time the afternoon betterball got going, the Cantlay story had spread. In quieter corners of Marco Simone, Sam Burns and Collin Morikawa inflicted a heavy defeat on Hovland and Aberg, before Homa and Harman followed their earlier win with another over Fleetwood and Nicolai Hojgaard.
Both points were comfortably won, but Thomas and Spieth were then surprisingly crushed by Rose and Robert MacIntyre 3&2. Rose was good for four holes across the match — he was excellent. But poor old Spieth — his week was typified by an attempted lay-up at 16 on Johnson’s instructions, but it trickled into the water.
The crowd responded to that by informing Johnson he would be getting ‘sacked in the morning’. He might see that as a mercy, even if Cantlay and Clark added some respectability by overhauling a one-hole deficit with two to play against McIlroy and Fitzpatrick. Good golf that was easily forgotten in the fallout of a row about a hat.