Defending champion Mark Selby came from behind to win a topsy-turvy match against world number five Mark Williams and reach the British Open semi-finals.
The world number 10 edged the opening two frames before Williams turned the tables with three of his own.
But four-time world champion Selby responded with a break of 106 and took the next two frames to claim a 5-3 win.
Bidding to become the first player to successfully defend the British Open title, the 42-year-old will face world number16 Shaun Murphy in the semi-finals.
Reigning Masters champion Murphy, riding a wave of momentum after already beating world number three Neil Robertson and world number one Judd Trump, overcame Mitchell Mann 5-1 in a one-sided game.
World number 91 Mann has only previously featured once in the quarter-finals of a ranking tournament – reaching that stage of the 2021 Northern Ireland Open.
Four-time world champion John Higgins was made to sweat by world number 88 Louis Heathcote after the Englishman took the first two frames with ease.
But Higgins turned on the style thereafter, winning five straight frames – including 135 break – to win 5-2 as Heathcote scored just 39 more points.
Higgins will meet fellow Scotsman Anthony McGill in the semi-finals after he fought back from 3-1 down to win 5-3 against 19-year-old Stan Moody, who eliminated Ali Carter in the previous round.
McGill has not featured in the last four of a ranking event since the 2022 Northern Ireland Open.
Saturday’s semi-finals will be the best of 11 frames (first to six), while Sunday’s final will be the best of 19 (first to 10).
Each player has won £20,000 for reaching the semi-finals, while the runner-up will receive a further £45,000 and the winner £100,000.
Scottie Scheffler’s dominance at the top of the men’s game – insurmountable as the world number one, ruthless wins at the majors and cleaning up on the PGA Tour – have seen parallels drawn with Tiger Woods.
At Bethpage, another similarity between the two American superstars started to emerge: struggling in Ryder Cup pairings.
After losing in Friday’s opening foursomes, Scheffler has now been beaten in all three of his matches in the alternate shot format – winning only three of 41 holes he has played.
Another defeat in the afternoon fourballs means Scheffler is only the third top-ranked player to lose twice on the opening day of a Ryder Cup.
“His foursome play is just atrocious and there’s really no explanation because you see the guy winning tournament after tournament after tournament,” American writer Alex Miceli told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“There seems to be no question that he will finally figure it out – but here we are in 2025 after the first matches and he still hasn’t figured it out.”
Scheffler, 29, did not play foursomes on his Ryder Cup debut in 2021 but suffered two heavy defeats in 2023.
Scheffler and Sam Burns lost 4&3 to Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton on Friday in Rome, before he and Brooks Koepka suffered a record 9&7 mauling by Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Åberg on Saturday – which left Scheffler in tears.
The loss at Bethpage means American world number ones have lost five straight Ryder Cup foursomes matches – Scheffler following Woods in 2010 and Dustin Johnson in 2018.
How world’s best struggle in foursomes
Europe have regularly looked to a talismanic figure – starting with Seve Ballesteros in the 1980s through to Rory McIlroy in the present day – to be a figurehead driving their Ryder Cup bid.
The United States have never been able to find that leader – not even Woods.
The 15-time major champion elevated golf to a new stratosphere in the late 1990s and early 2000s, meaning he still remains the game’s pre-eminent superstar.
But curiously Woods featured on just one victorious Ryder Cup team and won only 39% of his matches.
In foursomes, he won only four of 14 matches and lost nine.
Why? One theory is Woods – and now Scheffler – are unable to transfer their single-mindedness into a format where they are reliant on their playing partner.
Woods was seen as a lone wolf in his pomp. In the singles, he won four and lost two of his six matches.
While Scheffler is seemingly more comfortable in the team setting, the Texan has also performed better when he is concentrating on his own business.
He has not lost in either of his two singles matches so far, beating Rahm as an unheralded rookie in the 2021 win at Whistling Straits before earning a half against the Spaniard in Rome.
“I’d like to think that I’m not difficult to pair with people,” said Scheffler in his pre-tournament news conference.
“I’ve had different partners over the years and have had some success. I would definitely not put myself in that category.”
Another hypothesis behind Woods and Scheffler’s foursomes struggles is their team-mates being unable to cope under the weight of expectation.
Four-time major winner Scheffler, always keen to underline his bloke-next-door persona, has less of an intimidating aura as Woods.
But he does possess the same lofty standards where his golf game is concerned.
However, since 1999, the top-ranked player in the Ryder Cup field has won just 38% of their matches.
“They put a lot of pressure on themselves and as much as Scheffler says he doesn’t think about it, I think that’s garbage and he thinks about all of it,” added Miceli.
“Tiger didn’t care so much [about that] but Scottie is a different kind of individual.
“He thinks he needs to lead but doesn’t want to be seen leading. It’s a huge conundrum for him, I think.”
Scheffler & Henley ‘failed to fire’
Getty Images
Of course, Scheffler is far from solely responsible for the foursomes defeats.
His partner Russell Henley did not cover himself in much glory during Friday’s 4&3 beating by European pair Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick.
Henley is fourth in a world ranking system skewed by the omission of LIV golfers, but looked shaky on his Ryder Cup debut.
Even Scheffler – whose game is based on consistent driving and metronomic irons – could not dig them out of trouble.
“Scheffler and Henley certainly failed to fire but the European performance was perfect,” said former European Ryder Cup player Oliver Wilson, who is analysing the Bethpage action for BBC Radio 5 Live.
“They made the Americans earn everything and they really couldn’t come up with the goods.
“The Americans put on a little spell at the end there, they had a little bit of life coming but it just wasn’t enough and it was far too late.”
Scheffler was bullish afterwards, saying he felt his pairing did “some good things”.
“We just didn’t hole enough putts early. We had some chances. I think the putts just didn’t fall,” he added.
On Friday afternoon, Scheffler was unable to make amends in the fourballs alongside debutant JJ Spaun as they were beaten 3&2 by Rahm and Sepp Straka.
Again, Scheffler blamed his failings with the putter – the weakest part of his game – even though he did rally with a couple of late birdies.
Scheffler and his long-time buddy Henley have been given the chance to redeem themselves in the Saturday foursomes, with US captain Keegan Bradley insisting Scheffler remains in “great spirits”.
Trailing by three points, the hosts are relying on some statement performance. Especially from their standout talent.
EUROPE CAPTAIN LUKE Donald has stuck with the personnel that delivered Europe their Friday foursomes rout for the second morning of competition.
Europe’s 3-1 win in the opening session helped set up a 5.5 to 2.5 lead at the end of the first day’s play, and Donald has rejigged only the order of his selection for the Saturday morning foursomes.
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Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Aberg, who hammered Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley 5&3 in the second match on Friday morning, will lead Europe off tomorrow morning, where they will face Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Young.
Young has been subbed in to replace Justin Thomas as DeChambeau’s alternate-shot partner, having impressed in a 6&5 fourball win over Aberg and Rasmus Hojgaard.
Rory McIlroy will again team up with Tommy Fleetwood tomorrow morning, and they will again face Harris English and Collin Morikawa, whom they hammered 5&4 in the first foursomes session.
John Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton will joust with established American duo Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, the only American pair to win their foursomes match on Friday.
Finally, Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland will again anchor Europe, this time against Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley, a pairing with whom Bradley has kept faith in spite of their heavy Friday morning defeat.
THIS WAS ANOTHER Ryder Cup day that ended with an epic duel between Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay in the evening gloaming, and like in Rome two years ago, it ended with a European chokehold on this competition.
McIlroy and Cantlay jousted alongside Shane Lowry and Sam Burns in the day’s final foursball, with the American duo clawing back a two-hole deficit with six to play to ultimately settle for a half-point tie across a final stretch of holes that swung and swayed magnificently.
That final point means Europe take a 5.5 to 2.5 lead into the second day’s play. An elusive away victory is now palpable to touch, as the last time either side overcame a first-day deficit of this size was in 1999, when the US triumphed at the Battle of Brookline.
The 2025 edition at Bethpage Black is suffused with an even greater rancour. The sober morning crowd were quiet and subdued during Europe’s dominant foursomes start, but Donald Trump’s appearance at the start of the of the afternoon fourballs was the trigger to let loose all manner of boorish behaviour from the galleries. The coarseness that Trump has permitted in daily American life in America jutted out from the crowds throughout.
European players bore the brunt of it, but the Americans were assailed by travelling fans too. The venom and volume of personal and family abuse was jarring, with the players’ march between holes transformed into something akin to Cerci Lannister’s walk of shame. The Ryder Cup atmosphere needs an edge, but this level of hostility is unsustainable.
This opening day swung on the performances of the leading men.
Jon Rahm was astonishing, brutalising Bryson DeChambeau and then Scottie Scheffler to win both of his matches without needing to darken either of the closing holes. McIlroy, meanwhile, teamed up with Tommy Fleetwood in the morning to hose Harris English and Collin Morikawa, and he then held his nerve marvellous duel with Burns and the flinty Cantlay.
By contrast, Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau registered a sum total of zero points from four matches. Given the Americans lack the Europe’s depth, this is precisely the misfire they could not afford.
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Earlier in the day, US captain Keegan Bradley was stopped for a snap, preliminary post-mortem on his team’s 3-1 foursomes pasting.
“We just had the President fly over in Air Force One, so I have a feeling things will change here”, he replied. Moments earlier, Trump’s plane had screamed across the 15th fairway.
The President was introduced to the crowd at the first tee shortly before the start of the afternoon fourballs. While he was recently jeered at the US Open tennis elsewhere in New York, today Trump was drenched in adulation. He was led to a seat overlooking the first and final holes, screened by thick bulletproof glass, and Bradley paid homage whenever he passed his president, at one holding out his palms and bowing in supplication. Trump was greeted by all of the American players, many of whom doing so with a raised fist. Cap-doffing caddie Joe LaCava this time waved his hand in lengthy tribute before setting off with Cantlay for the final match.
Many of the European players walked past Trump without acknowledging him, though McIlroy gave him a friendly wave.
Donald Trump escorts Bryson DeChambeau and his playing partner Ben Griffin to the first tee. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Not that the president was content to remain in his assigned seat. He sauntered down onto grass to meet Bryson DeChambeau, and escorted him to the first tee, at which Trump remained standing, largely alone, looking like a besuited man waiting patiently for a bus. Once DeChambeau and co. had journeyed off down the fairway, Trump turned to tell the crowd he loved them, and led a rendition of U!S!A!
The States’ made the fast start they needed, with Scheffler/Spaun taking the first hole against Rahm/Straka. The Euro duo, though, won holes two and three to establish a lead that they did not relinquish.
Scheffler entertained an abrupt revisit of his putting woes, and it took until his 33rd hole of the day to find his first birdie. Straka then poured in a monster putt to deny him the hole anyway. Two years ago, Scheffler became the first sitting world number one not to win a Ryder Cup point. Remarkably, he’s now facing a repeat mortification.
DeChambeau, given little help by the hapless rookie Ben Griffin, was eventually tackled in the afternoon by Europe’s slow-burning duo of Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood. The latter did not win a hole until the 11th, though Rose drained a 46-foot putt to somehow tie the seventh after Griffin found the cup from closer to 60.
But having trailed since the fifth hole, Fleetwood made birdie from short range on 14 to splash the match in blue for the first time. DeChambeau strode off the green, with a face of thunder. They sealed the match 1-Up having been brought to the 18th.
Trump, by the way, didn’t see any of this drama: he had left hours earlier.
Meanwhile, Cameron Young, surprisingly benched for the morning, teamed up with Justin Thomas to raze the European fourball duo of Ludvig Aberg and Rasmus Hojgaard 6&5 in a rare exhibit of American dominance.
Lowry rolled in a nerveless 20-footer on the second hole to tie his and McIlroy’s anchor match.
The subdued morning crowd meanwhile came to life, fortified as they were by Bethpage’s 19-dollar pints. McIllroy was forced to step back from a shot on the fifth fairway as insults tumbled too close to his backswing, moments after Lowry looked agitated by an adjacent comment.
The ferocity of both the crowd and the mid-afternoon sun was making things claustrophobic. Rory, though, brought his own noise, screaming “Come on!” at consecutive holed putts on five and six. Their 2-UP lead was wiped out by Cantlay’s steel on holes 12 and 13, however, the latter after McIlroy saw a short-range putt somehow lip out. McIlroy’s malign fates were satisifed, however, as Cantlay took approximately three days to hit a three-foot putt to take the lead on the 14th hole. It lipped out, and McIlroy walked off with a fist pump for the hectoring crowd.
They closed in dramatic stalemate from there, with McIlroy matching Cantlay’s birdie on 16 and Burns doing likewise with McIlroy’s on 17. McIlroy had a putt to win the match on 18, but saw it drift agonisingly wide. He and Lowry collapsed into each other and then their team-mates afterward, almost punch-drunk from the gauntlet they had just staggered.
Europe’s players will be stepping more lightly home, however. This was as emphatic a start as they could have wished for. They need only nine more points from here.
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