The Americans had been beaten up in the Friday foursomes, and the Friday fourballs, and then again in the Saturday foursomes. By midday, they were in desperate straits. So Keegan Bradley threw his Hail Mary. Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler, two alphas of the modern game, paired together in the Sunday fourballs.
Bradley is not a numbers guy and in that respect he is very different to Luke Donald, whose every decision is put through the statistical analysis of his data guru Edoardo Molinari, whose models sniffed out Ludvig Aberg while he was still at college. Bradley prefers gut feel which is why he paired Harris English, a Ryder cup rookie, with Collin Morikawa, who has long since abandoned his major-winning form of yesteryear. Harris and Morikawa were ranked the 132nd most effective pairing out of 132 combinations by Data Golf.
No, this was not a pick from a spreadsheet. DeChambeau and Scheffler might not be an optimal mix in fourballs either, given their profiles are broadly similar. But the US needed something, anything to cling on to, to stop going under. Bradley reached into the bag, found his biggest grenades and pulled the pins.
What they were confronted with was one of the greatest Ryder Cup performances in history, and that is no hyperbole. Tommy Fleetwood was good, but Justin Rose was sensational.
Rose was the world No 36 in Rome two years ago and, in his mid-40s, it would have been understandable if his game began to tail off. He is only two years younger than Luke Donald, whose best golf is well behind him. Yet Rose finished runner-up at last year’s Open, lost a play-off to Rory McIlroy at the Masters in May, and is now 14th in the world after winning the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis this summer.
Here he played like it in the face of American power. With the world No1 by his side, DeChambeau attempted to unleash hell on Bethpage Black. He battered his opening drive 50 yards closer to the green than the Europeans, and, more surprisingly, took driver again on the heavily tree-lined par-four second hole. Again, he was 50 yards closer to the hole and the Americans whooped. “Nice lay-up, Tommy!” came one heckle.
But DeChambeau’s brute force was nullified by the touch of Rose – fresh from a rest in the foursomes – who stuck his first two approaches close and rolled in both birdie putts. Muscle didn’t help DeChambeau on the par-three third hole, either. Rose won the closest to the pin competition and Europe were 1UP through three.
DeChambeau’s bomb-and-gouge golf produced fleeting moments of brilliance, like his short iron on the par-five fourth which gripped and spun towards the hole, threatening an albatross before settling for a kick-in eagle. Scheffler birdied the next and suddenly the match had turned on its head, and the Americans were 1UP.
But Rose took them on in the Long Island sun. He invariably played the first approach shot and stuck it close. Scheffler responded to the challenge, bringing his iron play that had deserted him in Rome and was absent here on Friday too.
Fleetwood birdied the 10th before DeChambeau won a crucial hole on the 11th and celebrated with veins bulging out of his neck, as US fans revelled around the green. But Fleetwood birdied 12th and then Rose rolled in another putt on the par-three 14th to send Europe 3UP and kill off the match.
“Watching Justin Rose, they were some of my proudest few hours on the golf course,” said Fleetwood, sounding like a fan. “I absolutely loved it. I’m so blessed to be by his side today. What a golfer, what a human being, and to get another point on the board for the team obviously feels massive. Justin, I can’t speak highly enough about him.”
Bradley won’t want to look at the data. It was statistically the highest quality of the four fourballs out on the course, and Rose was the best player by a distance, with strokes gained putting of +4.56 – for context, the next best among the 16 players who played Saturday fourballs was Shane Lowry with +1.01. Rose won four holes, DeChambeau won three, Fleetwood won two and Scheffler won none.
Scheffler was magnanimous. “Bryson and I did some good stuff out there, but we were into a tough match-up today. Those guys played great. They made a ton of putts and tip of a cap to them. They played better than we did.”
Donald could have sent out McIlroy, Fleetwood or Rahm first in the Sunday singles. But it is Rose who will lead Europe off as they finish off the job. He has been pencilled in for captaincy in 2027. Europe will gain a great leader and lose one hell of a player.
