How Europe's Ryder Cup dominance of the USA continued while you were sleeping

Team Europe is doing it what it does in Ryder Cups on European soil. They are exposing the American weaknesses, especially on a course that does not favor big hitters or imprecise ballstrikers. They are winning the two-man games they are supposed to win, especially in the alternate-shot Foursomes format that they’ve owned during this era of dominance.

Friday afternoon’s 4-0 sweep put so much pressure on Team USA for Saturday’s four-ball, the format they tend to perform better in recently. But instead of closing the gap, the losing streak continued. Europe picked up the first three points, running it to eight straight wins in the overall Cup. The margin went from two points to four points, with 16 matches left to go. The most points won in a Sunday comeback during singles is 8.5 points. Team USA has 4 now. So they need to go big in the more uncomfortable alternate-shot afternoon session or else this is going to be another embarrassing blowout in Europe.

On Saturday, the Euro legends and mainstays came through. Their best pairing, the one we expected to be lethal, kept playing like it. Europe is good, no doubt, but the USA again played poorly through three of the four matches and didn’t put up much a fight through the morning session. The start, as it was on Friday afternoon, was awful.

We're about 2 hours in and the US has won 2 out of 22 total holes.
— Jay Rigdon (@jayrigdon5) September 29, 2018

Here’s what you missed while you were sleeping:

Patrick Reed was garbage

Poor Tiger Woods. He gets his first win in five years and has no time to celebrate it before shuttling off to the Ryder Cup, where he was met with questions about his underwhelming record in the match play competition. That record is a combination of Tiger’s poor play and a carousel of underperforming partners.

It was supposed to change this year. The USA roster was loaded and Tiger has never been more invested in these team events. They put him with Ryder Cup ace Patrick Reed, who has been the heart of the last two U.S. teams.

Tiger has not been close to the ballstriking performance that won him the Tour Championship, but Reed has been an abominable partner. He’s been inexcusably bad and put all the pressure on Tiger on almost every hole. His driver has been horrific, with several tee shots bombed out of bounds and into water hazards more than fairways. And when he did stay in the hole long enough to have a putt, he was rarely close, missing the cup by five and six inches.

It’s hard to overstate how bad Reed was Saturday morning. Just a complete non-factor and with just one birdie on the card, he didn’t win a single hole.

PReed seems dialed in.
"Sit! Down! That's a heater. Sit!"
/shot comes up 50 feet short
— Chris Chaney (@Wrong_Fairway) September 29, 2018

Then he had the gumption to shush the crowd when he did make a birdie to halve the 9th hole. This came after he missed the fairway on the first eight holes. It was a disaster. Even the brother of his opponent got in on the Reed roasting. After turning in one of the worst Ryder Cup performances in recent memory, this is what you get when you’re chesty for four years and incite the opposing crowds.

“Moliwood”

Again, poor Tiger Woods. Part of the equation was Reed’s play, but he also drew Europe’s top team on both days. I have a theory that Jim Furyk bumped Tiger-Reed out of the anchor spot to avoid a matchup against Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari for the second straight day. They have been Europe’s top team and it was assumed they would be back in that last match again a a guardrail. There’s just one problem. Thomas Bjorn pulled some jedi move and had already bumped Fleetwood-Molinari to the third spot. It’s a blind draw so neither captain knows the other’s lineup.

Just as it’s hard to overstate how bad Reed was, it’s also hard to overstate how good these two were. Fleetwood has probably been the best player on the European side through the first two days. And then there’s Frankie, who nearly aced the 11th hole just minutes after the U.S. pulled this match all-square. Molinari reeled off three straight birdies and buried Woods-Reed to clinch the 8th straight point for Europe. They look unbeatable, both individually, and certainly as a team.

Of course, Sergio

Sergio Garcia hasn’t made a putt in a year and hardly been competitive on the PGA Tour. It does not matter. Garcia has validated Thomas Bjorn’s decision to make a wild card selection of the Spaniard.

I felt Sergio did not really have to show much on Friday, as the impotent duo of Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau didn’t really push the Euros. But Garcia was nails all morning on Saturday, hitting several big putts when the USA team of Tony Finau and Brooks Koepka threatened to win a hole. The biggest, perhaps, came at the 17th, where Sergio iced the leadoff match.

Rory gets it back

Sergio was back, but so was Rory. The Ulsterman said he didn’t play particularly well on Saturday morning, but it was a huge improvement over what we watched in four-ball on Friday. He was the only player on the course not to make a birdie in Friday four-ball, but that drought ended quickly on Saturday in the same format. Perhaps the moment of the match, and the session in that all-important leadoff game, came from Rory just seconds after Tony Finau had holed out with a miracle bunker shot at the 5th.

Rory getting it back illustrates just how different the two sides are at maneuvering this competition. After the miserable start, Bjorn didn’t panic, instead putting him back out there with another Ryder Cup legend, Ian Poulter, who was sure to get Rory pumped and engaged again. Rory did start to feel it, and then Bjorn threw him with the other emotional leader during this era of Euro dominance, Sergio. It was those two who begged Paul McGinley to play together in 2014. They delivered then and they delivered this weekend.

He may not be playing as well as he wants, but Rory bombed in several putts and is vibin’ after an ugly start. He was a critical part of Europe winning that first match of the day.

The World No. 1 disappears

With Reed playing poorly and Sergio-Rory cruising, the USA simply had to win the match with Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world, and Rickie Fowler. The Euro duo of Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton were among the more vulnerable pairings. That’s all relative, as Europe is stout throughout the lineup. But this was a more winnable game than the others, especially with DJ-Rickie going for USA.

Casey, however, opened on fire again with three birdies in his first six holes.

On the other side was DJ, a no-show on the front nine as the USA fell into a hole they could not get out of the rest of the match. He hit it in the water on the first two holes of the day and made no impact in the first two hours of the match. You can’t have DJ simply not posting for an entire nine holes

That doesn’t play. The session goes to a blowout when your horses, like DJ, lose to a team they shouldn’t lose to. Europe, on the other hand, doesn’t lose those matches. Sergio-Rory are their horses and they don’t disappear for nine-hole stretches.

At least it wasn’t a sweep?

I guess this is how you try to be positive after another blowout. It could have been worse? It was better than Friday afternoon’s complete runaway sweep. Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth salvaged a point for the USA, as they should. This is the new blood that is supposed to make the American side much more competitive in the next decade or so and they’ve shown well enough through the first two days. Both did their part, too. Spieth was strong early, from the very first hole, and then Thomas did some of the late work with back-to-back birdies to finish it off on the 17th green.

It’s a bright spot and hope for the future — not the immediate future, maybe, but like two and four years from now.

Here are your results from Saturday morning, and our lineup for Saturday afternoon: