🇪🇺 Day 1 domination

It’s been over a decade (Medinah 2012) since golf fans have been treated to a close Ryder Cup.

Of course, we want our sides to win. But deep, deep down, what we really want is drama and pressure and preferably, a Ryder Cup that comes down to the final few holes.

After Europe’s complete domination of the United States on Friday, sadly, golf fans may need to wait two years more for another crack at a close Ryder Cup.

As the sun set in Rome, the Europeans held a 6½ - 1½ lead over the Americans, which included a 4-0 morning sweep and three come-from-behind halves in the afternoon that resulted from massive, final hole putts from Viktor Hovland, John Rahm, and Justin Rose.

European Captain Luke Donald called it a “dream start” for his team. No kidding.

Meanwhile, for US Captain Zach Johnson, the scrutiny over his early moves rose throughout the day, including his decision to sit Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and Brooks Koepka in the morning session.

Still, as sports writer Joseph LaMagna put it, even if you disagreed with Johnson’s lineups (or, disagreed with his captaincy in general), you can’t look away from how poorly the Americans played on Day 1.

Here’s more on how the morning and afternoon sessions played out…

Friday morning foursomes (alternate shot)

🇪🇺 Rahm-Hatton won 4&3 over Scheffler-Burns

🇪🇺 Hovland-Åberg won 4&3 over Homa-Harmon

🇪🇺 Lowry-Straka won 2&1 over Fowler-Morikawa

🇪🇺 McIlroy-Fleetwood won 2&1 over Xander-Cantlay

Morning takeaways:

• Rahm was awesome. Coming into Italy, Jon Rahm’s recent form was somewhat lukewarm compared to Europe’s other top players, McIlroy and Hovland. But on Friday morning, Rahm was spectacular, nearly acing the Par 3 7th and chipping-in at 10th to deny the Americans any chance at a momentum shift.

• Hovland was also awesome, earning Europe’s first point of the day with a chip-in at the 1st and never looking back. Fist pumps were plentiful for Hovland on Friday.

• The Americans were sluggish. Between the missed putts and water balls, almost every player on Team USA looked out of sorts during morning foursomes. We knew this question of rest vs. rust would emerge on the American side (as most of them hadn’t played a competitive round in over a month). Indeed, we got rust. Or, something else that was not good.

• To put things into perspective… 

Friday afternoon four-ball (better ball)

Hovland-Hatton tied Thomas-Spieth

Rahm-Højjgaard tied Scheffler-Koekda

MacIntyre-Rose tied Homa-Clark

🇪🇺 McIlroy-Fitzpatrick won 5&3 over Morikawa-Schauffele

Afternoon takeaways:

• Fitzpatrick gets his point! With an 0-5-0 Ryder Cup record heading into Friday, Matt Fitzpatrick quickly silenced his naysayers by going six-under through the first six holes. He and McIlroy were 6-up through 7 and coasted to victory.

• Justin Thomas wasn’t outstanding, but he wasn’t terrible either. And for the Americans, that meant something. JT gave some life to Team USA on Friday with his patented fist pumps and carried partner Jordan Spieth down the stretch. Missed birdie chances at 16 and 17 hurt. But his 6-footer at the last put the US on board with its first half point.

• Europe’s Friday night knockout. The United States was in position late to win three out the four afternoon matches and move the overall score to a respectable 5-3. Then, Hovland made a 25-footer on 18 AND Rahm finished eagle-par-eagle AND Rose stole the last two holes from Clark and Homa. Suddenly, the Americans’ glimmer of hope was gone and for the first time ever, they did not win a single match all day.

Some good posts from today

This resonated at 3 am.

Ludvig Åberg and Nicolai Højgaard were impressive in their Ryder Cup debuts, making several big putts.

Pretty much the feeling all day.

And, Lowry in the background here is just the best.

Saturday morning foursomes are set

They are:

🇺🇲 Thomas-Spieth vs. 🇪🇺 McIlory-Fleetwood

🇺🇲 Scheffler-Brooks vs. 🇪🇺 Hovland-Åberg

🇺🇲 Homa-Harman vs. 🇪🇺 Lowry-Straka

🇺🇲 Xander-Cantlay vs. 🇪🇺 Rahm-Hatton

Of note: In his press conference Friday night, Zach Johnson alluded to health issues on the American side — not a promising sign for a team that needs to be nearly perfect from here on out.

That’s all for today! Thanks so much for reading and see you back here for a Day 2 recap tomorrow afternoon.

As a reminder, through the end of this weekend, if you refer people to Quick Nine, you’ll be entered to win $120 towards your next round of golf. Get 10 people to sign up using your unique code below and you’ll have 10 chances to win. I’ll select one winner next week!

Alright, get some rest. - Nick B. ☕️