After winning the Saturday afternoon fourballs 3-1, the U.S. trails 10 ½ to 5 ½ and will need to erase the largest deficit in Ryder Cup history if it is going to retain the Cup.
But we’re saying there’s a chance, especially after Patrick Cantlay birdied the final two holes, including a 30-foot birdie putt at 18, to flip his match.
“Hopefully have a ray of light and we can build on this session and try and pull off a big victory tomorrow,” Cantlay said.
Two years ago, the U.S. led 11-5 at Whistling Straits before cruising to a 19-9 victory. No team has rallied from more than a 10-6 deficit, but the U.S. only needs to reach 14 points to retain the Cup. In both 1999 and 2012, the winning side earned 8 ½ points in Sunday singles.
The U.S. showed some life winning the first two matches, but the Euros bounced back to win the third match and inch closer to extending the U.S. losing streak on European soil, which dates to 1993. It looked as if it would be a split of the session. That is until Cantlay’s heroics.
“Feels like we have momentum and we go kind of into the locker room laughing a little bit which just feels good,” Max Homa said.
Fans at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club heard the rumors, too, and started to taunt Cantlay all Saturday afternoon, waving their hats at him whenever he was on a green or tee box.
Cantlay was paired with Wyndham Clark during the last fourballs session of the competition, taking on Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick in the final match of the day.
After burying a short birdie effort on the par-3 17th to tie up the match, Cantlay raced his green-side chip 43 feet by the hole at the par-5 closer.
But his nickname isn’t “Patty Ice” for nothing.
Cantlay buried the putt and claimed the American’s third match win of the session. After the putt went in, members of Team USA (as well as a few caddies) took their hats off and started waving them to Cantlay, and some waved them at the crowd.
Joe LaCava, Cantlay’s caddie, also got in on the action. LaCava exchanged words with Shane Lowry, who was watching the match from off the green, and they didn’t seem to be pleasantries. (The tweet says Rory, but it was Lowry.)
A bit of drama on the 18th green.
Rory was upset with Cantlay's caddie for waving his hat before he putted. (via NBC) pic.twitter.com/Qw6kaRehDg
Since 2014,Ralph Lauren has been the official uniform provider for the U.S. Ryder Cup Team as well as the caddies, spouses and partners.
This tradition has been continued at the highly anticipated 2023 Ryder Cup at the picturesque Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, Italy. Spectators and attendees can purchase RL items in the merchandise tent to show their support for the U.S. Ryder Cup Team.
Focusing on performance fabrics, each piece is designed to move. Ralph Lauren has added subtle Ryder Cup specific touches to collars, trims, zippers and more.
Golfweek’s Averee Dovsek had a chance to see the collection first hand and gave fans at home the full rundown.
If you couldn’t make it to Rome to catch all the live action, you can shop the Ryder Cup collection at home at ralphlauren.com.
The U.S. traded acrimony for apathy, delivering a performance more befitting of a buddies’ trip to Myrtle Beach.
ROME — Not every American will be disappointed if Europe’s Ryder Cup rout short-circuits the importance of the final day’s singles matches. Certainly not devotees of Taylor Swift, now all but guaranteed that Sunday sports will again be dominated by their idol’s appearance at an NFL game. For that, they ought to thank the formidable performances of Europe’s players and captain, Luke Donald. But this is the most lop-sided contest in Rome since the Christians were drawn at home to the lions at the Colosseum, so the aftermath will almost certainly see less credit for Europe than criticism of the U.S.
The last two U.S. teams that competed over here were balkanized with internal strife. Scotland in 2014 was a week-long squabble between skipper Tom Watson and Phredo Mickelson, his “I’m smart!” detractor. That led to the “task force,” an exercise in shifting responsibility masquerading as group therapy. By Paris in 2018, Jordan Spieth had had enough of Patrick Reed (let he who hasn’t cast the first stone), so Reed aired his grievances about his former partner to the media before Europe had finished its first magnum of celebratory champagne.
In Rome, the U.S. team has traded acrimony for apathy, delivering a performance more befitting the last morning of a buddies’ trip to Myrtle Beach, without the redeeming excuse of thundering hangovers that would at least suggest fun was had along the way. But fun is in woefully short supply for Zach Johnson’s team.
That can be attributed in part to the unspecified illness that has impacted the U.S. team room, but missing fairways and putts aren’t symptoms of any infection. Sniffles won’t explain how Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg could play the first three holes of alternate shot on Saturday morning in 1-over-par, and win all of them. Mystery bugs can’t account for the U.S. team needing 11 matches before it managed to record an outright victory.
Like many European captains before him, Donald used the ghost of Seve Ballesteros as inspiration this week, but the secret to his success was best summarized by Lucius Seneca, a philosopher who lived across town a couple of millennia ago: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Team Europe captain Luke Donald leaves a team photo prior to a practice round of the Ryder Cup golf competition at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Sports
Donald handled the preparation part himself. The opportunity? Well, that was gifted to him.
Because he replaced the deposed Henrik Stenson as Europe’s captain, Donald had five months fewer to prepare than his counterpart, not an insignificant period of time in a two-year Cup cycle. But he polished the template that guided his predecessors. Messaging was flawless, social media image-making was luminous, unity was air-tight, statistics were plain common sense, pairings were savvy. And like a lot of his forebears in the role, he got some help from the opposition.
Johnson is passionate about both the Ryder Cup and his patriotism. So too are his vice captains. The problem is that the same sentiment isn’t universal in the team room. To be clear, all 12 American players are not apathetic about being here. Most of them care. Most of them care a great deal. But apathy is a deadly contagion in team environments, and it only takes one case. Especially when the going is tough.
Every aspect of Team USA’s preparation and performance was repurposed by Europe to boost their confidence. Like when the U.S. showed up three shy of a full squad on their reconnaissance trip earlier this month, though Spieth had a perfectly valid excuse. Or when nine of the team didn’t compete for a month before coming to Rome. Even the LIV guy checked that box, and they’re supposedly the ones who want to spend more time at home. Or when rumors circulated that every prospective member of Johnson’s squad had signed the agreement stipulating their obligations for the week months ago, except for two, who only recently inked the paper. Or when they heard that some on the U.S. team are skipping group dinners to rest. Or knowing that some Americans are upset about not being paid to play, as though patriotism is just another commercial transaction.
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People relentlessly focused on money will always find it difficult to reconcile themselves to giving their time to an unpaid cause, no matter how distinguished, even if only for a few days. The dispiriting impact of the cash arms race in professional golf isn’t only evident in the veterans who are absent this week.
“A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea that is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself,” wrote the ancient Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius. “The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.”
Captain Johnson ought to have painted that on the wall of his team room. The mountain facing the U.S. on Sunday is practically insurmountable, made no easier by the perception that not everyone in the line-up shares an equal passion for the challenge. You know who does? You know who isn’t apathetic? Keegan Bradley. But he’s not in the boys club, so he’s watching from his couch in Florida.
“That doesn’t even register to a low level of Jon anger on the golf course.”
Jon Rahm couldn’t avoid Brooks Koepka’s contentious comments Friday night at the Ryder Cup. Rahm would’ve rather that his friends not send him text messages regarding Koepka’s remarks that Rahm acted “like a child” during their afternoon fourball match, but the Spaniard seemed to take it all in stride.
Rahm hit a sign with his club out of frustration on Friday after leaving a 10-foot putt short on the 17th hole to possibly tie the match.
“That doesn’t even register to a low level of Jon anger on the golf course,” said Rahm on Saturday after another foursomes victory alongside Tyrrell Hatton.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m very happy with who I am, and I needed to do that at that moment to let off some steam and play the hole I wanted to do. And clearly it worked out, played two great shots and got a little lucky on the putt. I needed to do what I needed to do to perform under those circumstances.”
Koepka had this to say to the press on Friday after Rahm made two eagles over the last three holes to tie the match: “I mean, I think me and Scottie birdied, what did we say, 14, we birdied 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and then lost by two. So yeah. I mean, I want to hit a board and pout just like Jon Rahm did. But, you know, it is what it is. Act like a child. But we’re adults. We move on.”
Jon Rahm of Team Europe reacts alongside Brooks Koepka of Team United States on the second green during the Friday afternoon fourball matches of the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf Club on September 29, 2023 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Koepka’s comments seemingly backfired as he and Sheffler suffered the worst loss in Ryder Cup history on Saturday morning after Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg crushed the American heavyweights, 9 and 7.
After Rahm and Hatton won their Saturday morning foursomes match, the Spaniard addressed Koepka’s comments for the first time.
“I mean, I’m not going to stand here and say I’m a, you know, perfect example on what to do on a golf course,” said Rahm. “I don’t think either of us two are (laughter). But I play and compete.”
Hatton, who is also known for having a short fuse, added: “I’m just sitting here watching the TV.”
On a day when the European Ryder Cup team seemed to make one dramatic shot after another en route to taking a commanding 6½-1½ lead over the Americans at Marco Simone outside Rome, Italy, no one was better than Spain’s Jon Rahm. The 2023 Masters champion paired with England’s Tyrrell Hatton to beat Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns 4 and 3 in a morning’s foursome match, then he rallied from behind with Nicolai Højgaard to save a half-point in an afternoon’s fourball match against Scheffler and Brooks Koepka.
Dramatically, Rahm holed out from around the green three times on Friday, including this amazing shot at the 16th hole.
In addition to the Callaway Apex TCB pitching wedge that matches his irons, Rahm typically plays three Callaway Jaws Raw wedges — 52, 56 and 60 degree — that are all fitted with Project X 6.5 shafts and Golf Pride MCC grips. Here is what they looked like at the Travelers Championship in June.
Jon Rahm’s Callaway wedges and irons at the 2023 Travelers Championship. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
However, the lob wedge that Rahm used Friday was not his normal Callaway JAWS Raw 60-degree wedge, it was a prototype. As you can see in the photo above, Rahm’s JAWS RAW has four holes in the back, a Callaway logo on the toe and, per Jon’s preferences, the names of his children are stamped into his wedges. As you can see in the photo below, the club he used at Marco Simone looks very different.
Jon Rahm’s lob wedge Friday at the 2023 Ryder Cup. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
While the prototype club still has the Golf Pride MCC grip, we can clearly see it has a True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue shaft instead of Rahm’s normal Project X 6.5 shaft. The wedge itself appears to lack a Callaway logo on the toe, but there does appear to be some identifying stamping on the back. There is moderate heel and toe relief, but significant, similar to the X Grind. With the extremely thick rough around the greens at Marco Simone, a high-bounce wedge would make a lot of sense and could make popping the ball out of tough lies easier.
According to Callaway, Rahm has used this wedge a few times, and adding it this week could definitely be a course-specific move. Upon seeing how a golf course is set up and what the conditions will likely be, many pros tweak their equipment setups, and in some cases, they use different wedges. At the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne, where conditions were extremely firm and fast, Justin Thomas added a 60.5-degree, low-bounce Titleist Vokey Design T Grind wedge so he could get the leading edge under the ball without blading chips and pitch shots.
Both the American and European teams want to get off to a good start at the Ryder Cup, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee a victory come Sunday night.
Team Europe leads the United States 6½-1½ in the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, Italy. It was a stellar Friday for the hosts, coming off a 19-9 drubbing in the United States at Whistling Straits two years ago. Europe swept the fourball session and then halved three of the four foursomes matches, winning the fourth.
This is the first time in Ryder Cup history the United States hasn’t won a match in a day of play.
Only five times since 1979 has a team scored at least 6 points on the opening day of the Ryder Cup, including this year. In three of the four previous editions, the team who led after the opening day went on to win.
Here’s a look at the previous big leads after Friday in the Ryder Cup since 1979 and who went on to win.
Team USA failed to earn a full point in any match on Friday.
ROME — A tie has to feel like kissing your sister to the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
The Americans squandered opportunities to win three of the four matches in Friday afternoon’s fourball session, failing to win a single match on the first day of the 44th Ryder Cup, the first time that’s happened in Cup history, and digging themselves a big deficit.
After sweeping the morning foursome 4-0, the Europeans made three clutch putts at 18 to turn potential losses into ties. First, Viktor Hovland drained a 26-foot birdie putt to tie the first match of the session. In the next group, Jon Rahm drilled a 33-foot eagle putt to salvage a tie. Finally, Justin Rose buried a 9-foot birdie putt that capped off a comeback from 2 down with two holes to go. In the end, Team Europe jumped out to a 6½-1½ lead.
“One thing that we talked about a lot is just it’s not over till it’s over, and the boys did that, those three matches,” Matt Fitzpatrick said. “They all got something out of it when they could have easily gone the other way, and it just makes a big difference.”
Fitzpatrick almost singlehandedly won a full point in the only match that didn’t end in a tie. Entering the Ryder Cup with a chip on his shoulder, the Englishman showed his mettle in the biennial competition. In two previous Cups, he was winless in five matches. Not anymore.
Fitzpatrick put on a putting exhibition during Friday’s afternoon fourball alongside teammate Rory McIlroy. Fitzpatrick had yet to play a fourball match in his previous two Cup appearances; he made the most of his chance.
“You build it up to be this amazing thing that you wanted to be part of thinking that you’ll get a real good go at it, and obviously I never did, really,” he said. “So that’s obviously always something that’s sort of disappointing.”
Fitzpatrick and McIlroy dominated the team of Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa, winning 5 and 3. It was a dream start for European Captain Luke Donald.
“Historic day, but we want it to be an historic week, so the job is certainly not done,” he said. “We will all celebrate an amazing day, but we’ll be back tomorrow morning with the goal of trying to win tomorrow morning’s session. We’ll be getting our guys focused to be back in the saddle, so to speak. But what a day.”
Johnson needs decisions without fear or favor, but doing so runs counter to the U.S. culture that has been cultivated.
Two numbers confer stature among elite golfers. World ranking is one, despite the mutterings of LIV loyalists. Europe’s Ryder Cup team boasts the second, third and fourth-ranked players in the game, so captain Luke Donald had them lead off Friday’s opening session at Marco Simone. Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland each returned a point. Major championship victories also separate top players. U.S. captain Zach Johnson’s starting line-up combined for four major wins. The guys he benched have 11, including two this year.
If pressed, Johnson can probably offer reams of analytics and statistical profiling to support his decision-making, but then many a dubious position can be defended by data that confirms what we wish to believe. If the U.S. goes on to lose for the tenth time in the last 14 Ryder Cups, the calls Johnson made before lunchtime on day one will be picked over mercilessly. Yet, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, it may be his responsibility but it is not his fault. Or at least not entirely.
The American skipper has been consistently transparent about how much influence he grants his players, and during a Tuesday press conference essentially acknowledged that the U.S. captaincy is crowd-sourced. “I can say this in full confidence with our six guys that made this team: Those guys were, you know, adamant they wanted those six other guys to help complete their team,” he said.
“Adamant.”
So the locks for the team decided who would get the picks.
Scottie Scheffler (lock) and Sam Burns (pick) are close friends. They played together three times at the Presidents Cup last year and didn’t win a match, losing two and halving one. Advocacy for a pairing with that record ought to be dismissed by a captain, not indulged. And certainly not sent out first in alternate shot when one guy is struggling to find fairways and the other has issues finding the hole from short range.
Much will also be made of who didn’t work the early shift.
Like Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. Sure, neither has played well recently, but the former is a talismanic figure with a winning record in foursomes, while the latter is a .500 and unlikely to be intimidated by the raucous opening-day environment. Or Brooks Koepka, a current major title holder, who blistered Marco Simone in the last practice session on Thursday.
Team USA golfer Justin Thomas (right) lines up a putt on the ninth hole as golfer Jordan Spieth looks on during day one fourball at the 44th Ryder Cup golf competition at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Captains hewing to an analytics-based strategy must know when to adapt in fluid situations, but tentative leaders may view changing tack as an abandonment of all their advance planning, ultimately finding themselves adrift with a life vest that won’t fully inflate. To his credit, Johnson rejiggered partnerships for Friday afternoon fourballs and his players displayed a flicker more life. But he could ill afford a misstep that gifted Europe a sweep of the first session, and he knows it.
Europe already had a strong team. Now it’s a strong team buoyed with confidence. Rahm’s heavyweight swagger is even more pronounced, his burly embrace serving to settle the young rookie Nicolai Højgaard. Hovland has shown more emotion in this unremunerated team affair than he did while winning more than $30 million on his own last season. By sunset, McIlroy had already won more points than in the entire ’21 Ryder Cup, and Tyrrell Hatton barely had reason to reach double digits in cuss words. None of those facts augurs well for Team USA.
To stem the tide, Johnson needs to make decisions without fear or favor, but doing so runs counter to the culture that has been cultivated in the U.S. team over the last nine years.
After the acrimony at Gleneagles in ‘14 — when the most impactful shot any Yank delivered came during the Sunday night post-mortem press conference, and was directed at his own skipper — the PGA of America formed a widely-mocked task force. The objective for the organization was obvious: absolve itself from future criticism by handing over control (and potential blame) to the players themselves.
The toxicity, theatrics and treachery were eventually eliminated: Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, who has a better chance at winning one of his lawsuits than another Ryder Cup. But congeniality in the team room wasn’t just a by-product of the task force, it was the goal. Players at ease will perform well, went the logic. And while last year’s Presidents Cup showcased a unified, brilliant American team, ensuring comfort and companionship for 12 individuals isn’t always conducive to a winning performance.
As with the PGA Tour, the players now wield enormous power when it comes to the Ryder Cup, especially on the U.S. side. Their influence is decisive when it comes to choosing captains, picks and pairings. The actual team leader is there to give speeches and provide air cover. Johnson will defend the process and culture that has the U.S. facing a rough weekend in Rome because he’s loyal to his guys and a true believer in the task force product. But he’s going to face harsh criticism for decisions over which he almost certainly had something less than complete control.
There’s a ways to go in this Ryder Cup, but if the U.S. loses there will be plenty of blame to go around. But don’t expect it to be fairly apportioned. Team USA’s captain has been stripped of power, but not of responsibility.
The host course, Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, is a public-access layout with tee times available on the course’s website starting at 190 Euros for international players. The course playing to a par of 71 with the scorecard showing 7,181 yards. The rough is deep and thick, putting an emphasis on accurate tee shots to relatively tight fairways.
The Americans, captained by Zach Johnson, are trying to win on foreign soil for the first time since 1993. Team Europe, meanwhile, is hoping an influx of young talent will help captain Luke Donald reverse a lopsided loss at Whistling Straits in 2021.
