FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK | There will be plenty of time – the next two years sounds about right – to fully dissect the American destruction in this Ryder Cup, but on the eve of a coronation it feels appropriate to recognize the utter brilliance of the Europeans on a Saturday of their dreams.
They won six of the eight second-day matches and for much of the overcast afternoon, the Europeans were throwing what must have felt like a perfect game against the Americans as they did everything but silence some of the coarser voices within the New York galleries who seemed intent on upholding an unflattering stereotype.
Officially, the Europeans hold an 11½-4½ lead entering the Sunday singles meaning to any eternal optimists on the American side, there is still at least technically a chance for the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history. It’s the largest lead entering the Sunday singles since Continental Europe was invited to the party in 1979.
“I didn’t really imagine this,” said Luke Donald, on the cusp of going 2-0 as leader of the European team.
Here’s the math: The Americans must win 9.5 out of a possible 12 points to avoid being just the second home team in the last 10 Ryder Cups to lose at home and they need a full 10 points to win because a tie would allow the Europeans to retain the cup.
Considering Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood are 4-0 and Jon Rahm has three wins, Sunday feels like a formality. It does, however, offer world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler a final chance to win a point, something that has so far eluded him in his 0-4 performance this week. No American has ever lost five matches in a Ryder Cup, at home or away.
In four matches, Scheffler has played with the lead for only two holes. Over the course of Saturday, the Americans held the lead for only 14 of the 136 holes played.
Asked about his Saturday message to his team, U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, a passionate fan of all things Boston, said he will remind them of how the New England Patriots won Super Bowl LI with a remarkable comeback against the Atlanta Falcons.
“28-3. I was at that Super Bowl,” Bradley said, recalling the Patriots’ second-half deficit.
“The quality of golf was exceptional.” – Justin Rose
If the difference between the two sides could be found in a single match, it was the 3-and-2 fourballs victory Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood posted over the American superduo of Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau.
Rose and Fleetwood birdied six of the first eight holes and made 11 birdies overall in a mesmerizing performance. Forget that Bethpage Black has lost much of its venom with short rough, rain-softened greens and lift-clean-and-place rules. Rose and Fleetwood deconstructed both the course and their opponents.
“The quality of golf was exceptional,” said Rose, who was involved in a minor dustup with his opponents’ caddies late in the match.
Preparing to hit a 15-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole, Rose had to wait for the caddies to do some prep work for their players. Eventually, Rose asked them to step aside.
“I’m really disappointed that this has to be the talking point at the end of a really cool match; the level of golf was incredible,” said Rose.
“I was waiting to putt, the boys were obviously working on their read, obviously going through a lot of their sort of whatever, calculations and bits and pieces, so I sort of waited a few seconds and then I felt like they came up again and … I was like, ‘it’s my putt, right?’ or however I said it.
“Maybe I didn’t say it as politely as I could have said it in the moment, but by no means was there any disrespect or anything like that, but obviously it was taken the wrong way.”
It was one emotional moment in a Saturday speckled with them. The pro-American crowd, at least a loud portion of it, didn’t hold back from going at the Europeans, particularly Rory McIlroy.
Asked if the galleries went over the line, McIlroy said: “When you play an away Ryder Cup, it’s really, really challenging. It’s not for me to say. People can be their own judge of whether they took it too far or not. I’m just proud of us for being able to win today with what we had to go through.”
Starting Saturday with a three-point lead, the Europeans built on it in the morning, winning three of the four morning matches.
Any flickering hope the Americans had of minimizing the damage before lunch ended on the 17th green when Viktor Hovland daggered the Americans by holing a 13-foot par putt to maintain a 1-up lead over Scheffler and Russell Henley, eliciting a fist pump that could have knocked down a horse.
“I think I went black out there for a couple seconds,” said Hovland, who took himself out of the afternoon fourballs due to the recurrence of a neck issue that has bothered him at times this year.
“It was intense. It was like something I’ve never experienced. But this is what I live for. This is it.” – Shane Lowry
Scheffler and Henley made six birdies in their foursomes match, normally good enough to win, but Hovland and Robert MacIntyre made one more, punctuating a theme that developed early and ran through the day at Bethpage.
In an increasingly desperate situation in the afternoon, the Americans found themselves unable to shift the momentum. When Shane Lowry holed a long eagle putt on the par-5 fourth, he let out a roar that might have been heard 30 miles away in Manhattan.
“It was intense. It was like something I’ve never experienced. But this is what I live for. This is it,” Lowry said.
“This is, like, honestly, the reason I get up in the morning, for stuff like this. This is what I love doing. I love being a part of this team. I really want us to win this tournament.”