FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — One thing we learned from Friday morning’s European Ryder Cup beatdown?
The Ryder Cup’s not broken.
It’s been a funny run for the semiannual U.S.-Europe entanglement. Not because one side keeps winning — but because the home team does, and in convincing fashion. It’s been five cups and a dozen years since the visiting team’s last victory. Heck, it’s been five cups and a dozen years since the away team finished closer than five points down. Here’s how those cups have gone:
2014 (Scotland): 16.5-11.5, Europe
2016 (Minnesota): 17-11, USA
2018 (France): 17.5-10.5, Europe
2021 (Wisconsin): 19-9, USA
2023 (Italy): 16.5-11.5, Europe
Is this a problem? Is it really? I don’t think so. I think it’s a fascinating trend, and the sort of thing that makes an away victory that much more impressive. It’s a testament to the power of home-field and home-fan advantage as well as a good dose of randomness; Patrick Cantlay would remind you that we’re looking at an interesting pattern but caution that it’s not much of a sample size. I’ll join him there; I’d love closer matches but this isn’t a real issue.
Still, we’re in the fix-it era of sports media, where everything can be solved in a column, a podcast segment or a TikTok video, even if it wasn’t broken to begin with. So instead of riding the ups and downs of the Ryder Cup, there have been calls to change its format, its rules, its governance — something to level the playing field. Captains and organizers have been questioned on the subject.
So on Friday morning, when the away team bludgeoned the home side, it was an effective reminder that we’d be better off sitting back and taking it all in. This is golf. Anything is possible.
In the first match of the day, Bryson DeChambeau opened up a star-spangled spigot by pummeling driver over the dogleg, directly at the green, sending the expectant fans into a roar — and another when he made the putt for birdie. But that was the first and last hole they won; Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton tied the match with a par at No. 7, birdied No. 8 and put the match out of reach with birdies at 12, 13 and 14 en route to a 4-and-3 victory.
In the second match of the day, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and World No. 3 Russell Henley faced off against Ludvig Aberg and Matthew Fitzpatrick, he of the 1-7 Ryder-Cup record. But the latter duo made eight birdies in 15 holes to win 5 and 3, a shocking drubbing of the top American duo.
In the third match of the day, the Americans were overmatched on paper and outclassed in person; Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood won the 1st hole and never looked back, building a 4-up lead through six holes and beating the brakes off Collin Morikawa and Harris English, 5 and 4.
Through three matches, nobody saw the 16th tee. It was a beatdown of historic proportion — the most dominant start, by some measures, in 74 years of Ryder Cup competition. Through another lens it was unprecedented: Europe had never won the first three matches of a Ryder Cup held in the U.S. And while it’s plausible the U.S. would rally from 3-1 down, run the table Friday afternoon, pour it on Saturday and coast to victory Sunday, as Team Europe did after losing the opening session 3-1 in France, what seems far more likely is a streak-breaking, narrative-busting close match — or an away win.
The final match of the first session was a reminder that there’s plenty of talent on the U.S. side and plenty of golf yet to play. The American side’s most dependable duo, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, went up early and held on late in a 2-up win over Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland. They put some red on the board, they cut the deficit to two and they made it clear: there’s nothing wrong with the Ryder Cup.
And this one’s just getting started.
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