Rose: Stenson’s showing his cojones
Neil Mcleman
OLYMPIC golden boy Justin Rose claimed Henrik Stenson has “balls of steel” after another Ryder Cup victory with the Swedish silver medallist yesterday.
And the whole European team will need to show their mettle today to hold off an American fightback in France.
From 3-0 down on opening morning, Thomas Bjorn’s battling side then won eight consecutive points for the first time ever.
But Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas claimed the final morning fourball match against Ian Poulter and Jon Rahm yesterday – and then beat Europe’s talisman again in the afternoon foursomes with Rory Mcilroy.
Playing in the final match in 2012 at Medinah with the Ulsterman, Poulter won the final point that Saturday to set up next day’s ‘miracle’ comeback.
But yesterday it was Spieth who pumped his chest with pride Poulterstyle after nailing a nerveless birdie putt on the 15th green to take the score to 10-6. The same as on Saturday night in 2012.
The American said: “I would say the performances of our team has put in individually this season gives us hope tomorrow.
“Team golf doesn’t say who is playing best individually. Individual match play does. Tomorrow, we need a big couple of points early on, and then the pressure really shifts solely on to them.
“If we can get two or three points early, it’s gets to be quiet and uneasy around here and that clearly is the goal.
“They had a six-point lead, and now it’s four, so we are carrying that as a little bit of momentum I guess. Early wins tomorrow go a long way.”
Yesterday afternoon it was Rose and Stenson who won early in their favourite No.1 spot against the world No.1 Dustin Johnson and double Major winner this season Brooks Koepka.
The US Open and PGA champion hit the shot of the week with an approach to one foot on 15 to reduce the European lead to one hole.
But Stenson nailed a vital par putt on the 16th and then rolled a birdie home on 17 before Koepka missed a putt to take the match down the 18th.
Unbelievable
“No.1 has been our number,” said Rose. “Henrik has kind of owned that No.1 spot the last couple Ryder Cups. I think Henrik and I played such a steady, similar game, and obviously Henrik’s statistics are unbelievable tee-to-green, foursomes he’s so impressive, and he’s a dream partner, really.
“We didn’t play the dream golf. I don’t think we kicked into gear 100 per cent, but we did enough, and Henrik had – can I say balls of steel? But the putts he hit on 16 and 17 – my man stepped up when it counted, it was unbelievable. We have grey hairs but experience does count for something occasionally.”
Former Open champion Stenson, who also won with Rose on Friday afternoon despite arriving here nursing a sore elbow, said: “Leaving yourself putts like this, those grey hairs are coming quicker than we want.
“Those are the times you’re going to look back through your career and how great they were with the crowd, the atmosphere playing with these matches and being out with a partner like Justin couldn’t be much better than that.
“It’s been a good couple of days for us, it really has. They have done tremendously well, I’m proud of how they played and stuck together and were determined to do a job.
“I was just having to dig deep and try and finish strong, which we did, and tomorrow it’s a new day. We’ve seen these scenarios play over the years, 10-6 leads, and we’ve got to go out there and play some really, really good golf tomorrow.”
Rose said: “One hundred per cent agree with Henrik. Medinah was the same for them.
“There are 12 singles tomorrow, so we still need to find four and a half of them. So there’s a ton of golf and a ton of work to be played.”
Rose added: “We will be relentless tomorrow.”