Hey all, I know I sent out a review earlier on Friday's action, and I said I would do yesterday's roundup well sorry that I didn't, but I thought I would focus on the 12 singles matches. After Saturday's action which involved a near clean sweep in the morning fourballs and a drawn 2-2 session in the afternoon foursomes, Europe went into the singles with a 10-6 lead. This meant that Europe needed 4½ points to win the Ryder Cup and America needed 8 points to take the Ryder Cup back home and defend it in on home soil in 2020. I know you think that's difficult for America, but it has happened before. In 1999 the Americans overturned that score to win in Brookline which became one of the most famous moments of golf and then in 2012 Europe overturned that deficit to win in Medinah.
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| John Rahm celebrating his singles win over Tiger Woods. |
American captain John Furyk decided to do what Jose Maria Olazabal did at Medinah which was put his top golfers first to get the points early on hoping that it will inspire the rest of the team to go for the win. Bjorn knew that was going to be the plan and he wanted to get the 14½ points early and keep the singles going all day and make America fight hard for the points. The first match of the singles is usually the big match as it starts the pace and the direction of the day and the first match was America's top scorer Justin Thomas vs Europe stalwart Rory McIlroy. The game for 17 holes became a classic, a game for all time with McIlroy and Thomas leading at one point in the match. It came down to the last hole, and there was a feeling on both sides that the game should have finished as a tie after 18 holes however it went wrong for McIlroy as his tee shot was plugged in a bunker which took two shots and then hit his 4th into the lake surrounding the 18th, which ended the match with Thomas winning by 1 hole and made 10-7 America. The second match between the US Open and US PGA Champion Brooks Koepka and Paul Casey went down to the wire, and it became the only draw of the whole Ryder cup which made it 10½-7½. Then it looked like it was getting worse for the Europeans as Webb Simpson defeated Justin Rose 3 and 2 and Tony Finau beat Tommy Fleetwood 6 and 4 which made the score 10½-9½.
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| Rookie Thorbjorn Olesen celebrating the win |
After that, it went all Europe's way starting off with rookie Thorbjorn Olesen defeating Jordan Speith 5 and 4 and then John Rahm unlucky throughout the Ryder Cup got the point he deserved by beating Tiger Woods 2 and 1. Then Ian Poulter made it match point Europe by defeating Dustin Johnson on the 18th green. When Poulter won, it became a race between three golfers to win the match Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson and Francesco Molinari. The race was won by Molinari as he won all of his games, by beating Phil Mickelson 4 and 2 as Mickelson hit his tee shot at the 16th in the lake and Molinari put his tee shot on the green and became the first European golfer to do it. That's right even legends like Olazabal, Seve and Bernhard Langer never did it.
Stenson came home next beating Bubba Watson 5 and 4. Sergio finished his match next by defeating Rickie Fowler 2 and 1. Patrick Reed gave the American fans something to cheer as he won his game against Tyrell Hatton 3 and 2, but some would question his celebration at the end of the match as he waved a finger in front of his mouth trying to shush the European crowd. But Europe had the last laugh as Alex Noren sealed the win by beating Bryson DeChambeau on the 18th green to make it 17½-10½.
The American press came out quickly denouncing the play of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and even questioned how they both didn't score a point in the Ryder Cup. They were also promptly onto Furyk's captaincy. They were criticising his pairings and how poor he made use of his players, especially on Friday foursomes. Also, there was criticism over Patrick Reed after he interacted with the crowds and him saying that he didn't want to partner with the big stars throughout the week.
Well, that's all from the golf Europe win the Ryder Cup, and the next edition will be in America in 2020. See you all soon.
KRO Mark
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