The jury is not quite ready to declare this Ryder Cup a humiliation for Keegan Bradley’s US team but it is getting ever easier to condemn the behaviour of those supporting them.
If we talk about the line between shades of hostility that make this contest uniquely special and a level of crassness that goes to darker places, then it was crossed in the Saturday foursomes.
It was most glaringly present in the abuse of Rory McIlroy, and indeed his wife, which was appallingly personal and heard frequently in dispatches for much of his round alongside Tommy Fleetwood in their match against Harris English and Collin Morikawa.
But therein lies the kicker – the cheap shots from plenty of New Yorkers in the gallery proved almost as ineffective as the golf shots from Americans on the course.
Witness one scene that played out on the 16th hole of that match. By then, Fleetwood and McIlroy were two up, but had lost on both the 14th and 15th and a round that started with a chorus of ‘f*** you, Rory’ had escalated to regular commentaries on the state of his marriage. The final trigger point was indecipherable, but it arrived when McIlroy was addressing a shot in the right-hand rough and he snapped back: ‘Guys, shut the f*** up.’
To be fair, he probably spoke for a good few Americans, too, but the sharper response came from what happened next – he drilled his shot to three feet, Fleetwood tapped in, and the 3&2 win was secure.
Europe extended their advantage in the Ryder Cup after a successful morning session
Rory McIlroy won again alongside Tommy Fleetwood, but the Northern Irishman had to suffer appallingly personal abuse, including jibes about his marriage to wife Erica Stoll (above)
If anything has summed has summed up this extraordinary performance from Luke Donald’s side at Bethpage Black, it was that moment – the New Yorkers have thrown pelters at them for three sessions and the Europeans have hit back with birdies.
With it, they are in danger of running away from an American team that has been woefully lacking under the mind-boggling captaincy of Keegan Bradley. A third straight session went to the Europeans, with the scoreline mimicking their 3-1 foursomes win on day one, and at 8.5-3.5 ahead they are threatening a rout.
Such is the Cup and its format, no good ever came from the counting of chickens, just birdies, but on every front they are firing. Look no further than Fleetwood and Jon Rahm, both of whom have taken three points from three. The latter embossed his devastating partnership with Tyrrell Hatton by taking down Bradley’s most reliable pairing, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay.
His least reliable? His most peculiar? That was English and Morikawa, whose redeployment for a second beating by Fleetwood and McIlroy was something akin to our definitions of insanity.
But of course American woes went deeper. And stranger. How else to explain Scottie Scheffler, who is so dominant under his own flag and has been woeful here. Paired up again with Russell Henley to face Bob MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland, they were beaten one up. With zero points to his name, the world No 1 has been humiliated, an indignity now avoided to some extent by Bryson DeChambeau, who broke his duck alongside Cameron Young. They comfortably beat Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Aberg, whose putter has seemingly abandoned him.
Going into the afternoon fourballs, it is regrettable to think Bradley’s best hopes now rest on boozed up fans getting under the skin of the Europeans. Even that might not be enough – they are currently far too strong in their play and too coherent under Donald’s leadership. Of no less importance is how they handling points of stress, therefore suppressing American momentum before it has a chance to build.
At one point, McIlroy lost his cool as he told American fans to ‘shut the f*** up’
Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton won again in the foursomes, as Europe went 8.5 to 3.5 ahead
The clearest example came a couple of hours after the start of play on Saturday, when Donald’s side had the edge in three of the matches and trailed only in the first rubber. That was a comfortable place to be.
But then a minor US rebellion began to kick up. In order, DeChambeau had just dropped a six-footer to put himself and Young three up through 10 against Fitzpatrick and Aberg, before Cantlay drained one from triple the distance to move all square against Rahm and Hatton.
It’s been a rare sight to see the US winning two holes in close proximity here and outright unprecedented to go three on the spin, as they did when Russell Henley rolled in from nine feet on the sixth. That put him and Scheffler just one down against MacIntyre and Hovland, and this being the Cup, the locals picked up on it.
Having been stifled after the usual first-tee frenzy, the New Yorkers suddenly had a little wind in their sails.
Enter Rahm and the blanket of silence he was able to drop over this 1,500-acre site with the shot of the contest so far.
He was in a filthy spot to the left of the eighth green after Hatton had hooked his approach to the par three. Of all the shots one might encounter on this course, few would rank more difficult than what the Spaniard found himself starting at – his feet were planted in a bunker and the ball was at knee height, sitting down in thick, juicy rough on the downslope of the bank. Pitching through an undulating green to within six feet would have been a strong outcome, but gripping down on his club, Rahm skipped it in for birdie and lifted the Europeans back to one up. Stunning.
Further American pressure would follow, but never in such concerted bursts. DeChambeau and Young, extremely impressive and underused so far, progressed to wrap up their 4&2 win, but McIlroy and Fleetwood quickly followed them to the clubhouse after a minor revival from Bradley’s most maligned pairing.
Keegan Bradley’s side are under pressure and some his decisions have been strange
Despite being No 1 in the world, Scottie Scheffler (R) has badly struggled so far this weekend
Rahm and Hatton’s victory was a weightier blow to land, given Schauffele and Cantlay are the closest thing the Americans have to an established partnership, but they crushed them 3&2.
That European duo have been immense here, as have McIlroy and Fleetwood, though Donald’s leaderboard advantage has also been built by those lower in the batting order.
The win of MacIntyre and Hovland over Scheffler and Henley was one such example, and likewise for the value of big moments being delivered in difficult situations. That was shown on the back nine, when Scheffler belatedly demonstrated some of his better golf and steered the US from two down through 11 to all square 13.
The door was then slammed in his face – at the very next hole, MacIntyre spun a wedge from 165 yards to five feet and Hovland rolled Europe in front again. MacIntyre then rescued a half from 10 feet on the 15th and Hovland replicated it to preserve the lead on the 17th. The win was sealed on the last and a rout was coming into view.
