More than 50,000 fans cram Hazeltine

How hungry for golf are Minnesotans? Very.

More than 51,000 fans were crammed into Hazeltine National Golf c lub before noon for the first day of matches. The event was sold out months ago. Hazel- tine has hosted four majors, two U.S. Opens (1970, 1991) and a pair of PGA Championships (2002, 2009; the last major held in the state). How nice are Minnesotans? More than 30,000 turned out for a Monday playoff in which between Payne Stew- art beat Scott Simpson to decide the 1991 U.S. Open. That’s about five times the usual gallery for such extra sessions.

Reed Mackenzie, then chairman at Hazeltine and subsequently at the U.S. Golf Association, explained it this way at the time: “People would have thought it would be impolite not to be here for the playoff.”

Eyes of Tiger: United States Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III said he has a strategy for how he will deploy vice captain Tiger Woods through the weekend. He says he believes that “people will be watching Tiger watch golf,” and expected the superstar could buoy certain pairings at crucial moments. So far so good. Woods followed Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar in their morning foursome match against Lee West- wood and Thomas Pieters. The American pair stormed out to a 5-up lead after eight holes, with Johnson’s putting leading the way, and closed out the Europeans 5 and 4.

Woods may also have had an effect on Pieters in his first ever Ryder Cup match. The rookie was shaky all morning, and having the most famous name — and one of the most intense competitors — in golf looking over his shoulder might not have helped.

Willett’s woes: Danny Willett had a feeling he would hear it from the Hazeltine crowd after his brother penned a column for a Brit- ish outlet lambasting Amer- ican golf fans.

The revved- u p crowd obliged.

Willett sat out the morning session, but was jeered on the first tee in the afternoon. The partisan Amer- ican crowd chanted “Willett’s broth-er!” in response to Peter Willett, who called American fans “pudgy, base- ment-dwelling irritants” in a scathing column.

Danny Willett spent the past two days apologizing for and distancing himself from his brother’s words. But he didn’t respond well to the jeers in his first Ryder Cup match.

Willett and partner Martin Kaymer were rolled 5 and 4 by Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka in four-ball. It was Europe’s only loss in the afternoon session. in a hole.

“It’s frustrating not to come out a little bit more ahead,” U.S. captain Davis Love III said.

Love could not have scripted a better start — a symbolic one, too.

To honor Arnold Palmer, who died Sunday night, Ryder Cup officials placed on the first tee Palmer’s golf bag from when he was captain of the 1975 Ryder Cup team. Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed then set the tone with a 3-and-2 foursomes vic- tory over Stenson and Rose, and the Americans delivered the first sweep of the opening session since that 1975 team at Laurel Valley.

Phil Mickelson, feeling more pressure than usual because of his influence on this team, also produced big shots. His wedge to 5 feet that Rickie Fowler con- verted was key in the Amer- icans winning three straight holes for a 1-up victory over McIlroy and Andy Sullivan.

“With everything going on — me not having a point and Phil being a big part of getting the players a lot more involved to Arnie passing and him being a huge part of the week, this is big for us,” Fowler said. It just didn’t last. Beaten for the first time, Rose and Stenson went right back out against Spieth and Reed and handed the Amer- ican duo its first Ryder Cup loss. The Europeans made nine birdies in 13 holes for a 5-and-4 victory in an afternoon session in which the board was filled with European blue.

Sergio Garcia, who along only one birdie in a foursomes loss, teamed with fellow Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello to dismantle J.B. Holmes and Ryan Moore. McIlroy and Pieters never trailed against Johnson and Kuchar, handing them their first loss in four Ryder Cup matches. The lone American point in the afternoon came from Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka, who had no trouble against Kaymer and Danny Willett.

The crowd was loud and boisterous from the opening tee shot in misty conditions. There were a few rude comments, not unusual in America for a Ryder Cup.

Most striking was how quickly the crowd cheered bad shots for Europe. Typically, there is the slightest delay. Not on Friday. Sullivan, one of six rookies for Europe, hit his tee shot into the water on the 17th that put Europe 1 down and effectively ended the match. The crowd cheered before there was a ripple.

That’s what inspired McIlroy in the final match of the day. He and Pieters were 2 up on the 16th hole, with Kuchar already in for a birdie, when the four-time major champion drained his 20-foot putt. Turning to the crowd, he bowed twice and screamed out, “C’mon!”

“I wanted to put an exclamation on that session for us,” McIlroy said. “I thought about that celebration before I hit the putt.”

It was a message from McIlroy to what he felt was a hostile crowd.

“I’m not fazed by anything said by the crowd,” McIlroy said. “And I’m not fazed by anything the U.S. throws at us.”