San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
U.S. matches biggest 2-day lead since ’81
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Even with their best start in 46 years, the Americans wanted to wipe the slate clean and play Saturday as if the Ryder Cup was just starting.
When they finished another dominant session of foursomes, it started to feel as if this Ryder Cup against Europe was close to over.
Europe closed out two matches in rapid succession, then the U.S. closed out another to give the Americans a 10-5 lead with one match left on the course at the Ryder Cup on Saturday.
Shane Lowry dropped a 10-foot putt on the 18th green to help himself and Tyrell Hatton hold onto a 1-up victory over Tony Finau and Harris English.
Moments later, Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia improved to 3-0 on the week by closing out a 2-and-1 win over Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth.
Then, Collin Morikawa made a 22-foot birdie to help he and Dustin Johnson wrap up a 4-and-3 win over Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy.
In the final match, Americans Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler led Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland 2 up with two holes left.
It means the Americans will have at least 10½ points heading into Sunday singles, which would match their biggest two-day lead since 1981.
“It’s never in the bag,” U.S. captain Steve Stricker said. “That’s the thing as athletes you always have in the back of your minds.”
Even so, it was more of the same.
Europe has only won two of the 12 matches so far, both by Rahm and Garcia, who rallied from a 3down deficit to beat Koepka and Daniel Berger in a foursomes match that had a few tense moments and Koepka’s terse exchange with a rules official.
The rest of the morning belonged to the Americans, just like the opening day.
Dustin Johnson won his third straight match as he and Collin Morikawa built a big lead early and never trailed in a 2-and-1 win over Paul Casey and Hatton.
Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay had a six-hole stretch in the middle of the round that flipped their match as they remained undefeated in foursomes with a 2-and-1 win over Lee Westwood and Matt Fitzpatrck.
Spieth and Justin Thomas rallied from 3 down to win their first match together. Thomas again delivered a big blow on the par-5 16th — a 3-wood for eagle in fourballs Friday afternoon, a 4-iron to 8 feet in foursomes, with Spieth holing a clutch putt for eagle to seize control.
They won the match on the 18th hole when Bernd Wiesberger’s shot from the right rough found the water short of the green, and Viktor Hovland’s pitch from 50 yards for par was only close when it needed to go in.
Koepka and Berger were 3 up through five holes, but Rahm and Garcia had squared the match at the turn and then began to pull away, with Garcia making an 8foot birdie putt on the par-3 12th and the Americans taking bogey from 108 yards away in the fairway.
Still, it was spirited. Europe was 1 up and the Americans were in trouble when Berger sent his tee shot well to the right in mangled grass near a drainage pipe. Koepka
asked for relief, believing the drain was in the path of his intended swing. One official denied him. So did another brought in for a second opinion.
Three weeks ago, Koepka injured his left wrist when he hit a root he couldn’t see in the rough at the Tour Championship.
“If I break my wrist, it’s on (expletive) both of you,” Koepka said after the ruling was made. Instead, he gouged it out from 190 yards to the front of the green, and they halved the hole.
Garcia’s second win this week gave him 24, setting the Ryder Cup record. Playing his 10th Ryder Cup, he had said that going 5-0 without Europe winning the gold trophy would amount to a bad
week, and those feelings might be put to the test.
“It was important, but we need more,” Garcia said. “What we did is not enough, not (with) the situation we are in.”
European captain Padraig Harrington send out his Spanish Armada for the first time in fourballs in the afternoon. Rory McIlroy sat out for the first time in a Ryder Cup in the morning and returned for fourballs alongside Ian Poulter.
Stricker, meanwhile, rested some of his biggest stars — Cantlay and Schauffele, along with Thomas. That means Johnson will be the only American to play all five matches this week. Rahm and Hovland are the only players who didn’t sit for Europe.