FLEETWOOD SPANKS THE YANKS!
Tommy’s the hero on brilliant debut to leave USA in disarray
HI S T O RY was made on a dramatic afternoon at the 42nd Ryder Cup yesterday as an incredible European fightback turned a 3-1 lunchtime deficit into a 5-3 lead.
Europe’s unprecedented afternoon foursomes whitewash left the Americans in total disarray.
With Tiger Woods, Patrick Reed and double major champion Brooks Koepka left out of the afternoon session, Europe seized the momentum. The remarkable turnaround owed much to the morning lifeline offered by the brilliant Tommy Fleetwood and rock- solid Francesco Molinari. They birdied the last three holes of their fourballs to beat Woods and Reed in the anchor match.
On an afternoon when Le Golf National rocked to the virtually constant roar and the Icelandic thunderclap of Euro 2016 fame, eight players built on that precious point with relish.
It was the first whitewash achieved in any series by Europe since 1989 and their first at foursomes. It was also the first on such a comprehensive scale, with four victories completed without any game reaching the 17th hole.
True, they were helped by some astonishingly bad golf from the Americans, who have now lost the last three series of foursomes on European soil by an 11-1 aggregate. Here, the fatigue their supporters feared after playing so much FedEx golf in recent weeks appeared to manifest itself.
As well as Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter ended up playing, they overcame their own nervous golf early on thanks largely to their hapless opponents.
Highlighting it was the ridiculous pairing of Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau. How a man like Mickelson, who ranks 192nd out of 193 on the PGA Tour for driving accuracy, can be considered for foursomes defies explanation.
This is a record 12th Ryder Cup for Mickelson, who was playing his 46th match to equal Sir Nick Faldo’s all-time landmark.
It is fair to say it is one he will not forget. He marked the moment by becoming the man who has lost more matches (21) than any other American.
‘Right now, Phil and Bryson are so bad they couldn’t play the radio,’ said the witty David Feherty on American television.
They certainly could not play Garcia and Alex Noren. After nine holes they were four over and seven down. On the first tee, Garcia had nervously regripped the club so often before striking his shot it was hard to watch.
By the end he was the Ryder Cup hero we all love. He has now gone past Lee Westwood on the list of European Ryder Cup point-scorers and drawn level with Colin Montgomerie. Two more points and he will pass the leader, Faldo. Garcia has cursed his luck at times in his career but here he could not believe the gift horse offered. Mind you, he was not alone. At halfway in the four matches, the Americans had accumulated a princely total of one birdie and were an aggregate of 13 over par.
Yes, it’s a tough golf course and it was protected by a devilish 15mph wind. But it was not that tough.
‘I don’t think I have ever seen any side play as badly as this,’ Johnny Miller told his American audience. Those viewers must be wondering who kidnapped the team featuring nine major winners and described in the build-up as one of the best in their history. THINGS
did not get much better. Stenson and Justin Rose were just level par in beating Rickie Fowler and Dustin Johnson 3&2. McIlroy and Poulter were no better in inflicting another Ryder Cup defeat on Bubba Watson and partner Webb Simpson.
It is to be hoped that this will be the spark McIlroy needed after being horribly out of sorts in the morning fourballs. He never made a single birdie.
But captain Thomas Bjorn was rewarded for keeping him in the line-up as McIlroy fought back to at least a semblance of his true form. By his side, Poulter was pumping his chest in trademark fashion as he added another point to the best winning percentage of any experienced player in Ryder Cup history.
The heroes of the day, though, were Fleetwood and Open champion Molinari. After beating Woods and Reed, they thrashed Spieth and Thomas. Between them, those four opponents have won 19 majors and spent more than 700 weeks as world No 1.
Not a bad debut, then, from Fleetwood. It was a day the 27-year- old from Southport had been looking forward to for months, since learning it coincided with his son Frankie’s first birthday. The day became even more unforgettable in the company of another ‘Frankie’.
‘Tommy played just fantastically well all day,’ said Molinari, who scored his first two Cup victories after six previous matches had produced only halves and losses.
All square playing the difficult 15th against Woods and Reed, Fleetwood birdied that hole from 12 feet and then the 16th from 30 feet, before Molinari applied the finishing touch. It came at a vital time, too, as Europe were facing a whitewash of their own, and it ended up changing everything.
Earlier, McIlroy and Thorbjorn Olesen played like the ill-fitting pairing they always appeared, while Tyrrell Hatton and Paul Casey lost a high- class affair against Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. Worse was the luckless defeat for Rose and Jon Rahm.
One up with three to play against Koepka and Tony Finau, the latter’s tee shot to the par-three 16th looked destined for the water at the front of the green. But it hit the wooden sleepers separating the green from the hazard, rocketed 12 feet into the air — and came to rest next to the hole.
Insult was added to injury when Rose went in the water at the 18th as the Americans achieved a one-hole victory.
It meant that, at lunchtime on the opening day, Europe were left bemoaning their ill-fortune. Come the evening shadows, though, they could hardly believe their luck.