A MORNING OF malign history for America at Bethpage: they sank to a 3-1 foursomes defeat to become the first-ever home side to lose all three first sessions in a Ryder Cup. Europe now have 16 matches across which to find the six points they need to raid New York.
The United States may soon change their focus from winning this thing to limiting the recrimination, as a rowdy and ripped-off New York crowd will begin to turn.
Their love of Bryson DeChambeau will not conquer all. Especially the feeling of being drunk, dehydrated, and disappointed.
Pre-dawn attempts to stoke some atmosphere on the first tee were painful, with the crowd warmed up not by some stentorian hype merchant, but by a haughty kind of fun instructor. Thus he tried to lead the crowd in a clap-clap-stomp chant to the name of Scottie Scheffler.
The crowd were either unable or unwilling to maintain the man’s strict rhythym, and at one point he yelled at them to slow down. “You’ve had your Adderrall this morning”, he reproved. To which you wanted to tell him: Mate, if your job is to warm up the crowd, don’t tell them to cool down.
Vice-captain Jim Furyk appeared to lead the crowd in an endless loop of U!S!A!, during which a group of European fans sang, “You only have one song.” To avoid charges of hypocrisy, then flipped to singing of how Bethpage is a library.
Only Bryson DeChambeau could enliven this lot, and so he did, standing on the first tee and drawing his driver from the bag like King Arthur drawing the sword from the stone.
Bryson is not sitting at a round table, however, as he is America’s self-styled talisman. His post-round interviews yesterday were peppered with “I” a lot more than “We”, for instance, and he quickly abandoned his rookie fourball partner Ben Griffin on yesterday’s first tee to walk out arm-in-arm with Donald Trump.
Today DeChambeau continued to try to rally the American crowd with great flourishes of theatre.
Cameron Young – his third different partner in three different sessions – stuffed his approach on the first hole to 11 inches, and Bryson, first to arrive at the green, ostentatiously marked the ball, drawing jeers for the grudging Europeans who were apparently making him putt it. This wasn’t so: Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick hadn’t yet reached the green to concede the putt.
The crowd responded to Bryson at every turn, hailing him as The Big Dog and Captain America. A gang of European fans meanwhile serenaded him with a chorus of “You’re French, and you know you are.”
The American crowd stuck to their policy of taking turns to roar out all manner of lame eejitry, with Aberg held responsible the locals’ distaste for IKEA and fried herring.
Such was the pitiful contribution of Justin Thomas and Griffin yesterday, DeChambeau did all of the heavy lifting, but Young proved capable of shouldering some of today’s weight. They led Aberg and Fitzpatrick by two holes at the turn, and settled the match on the 16th green. Having completed the necessary hand-shaking, DeChambeau took off his cap and led the crowd in a series of Let’s go! Let’s f*****g go!
Young hung diffidently back.
DeChambeau may enjoy his limelight but his problem was Europe’s ensemble cast.
Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood continued their stunning partnership, again beating Collin Morikawa and Harris English, albeit this time taken they were gamely taken to the 16th green. McIlroy, sizing up his shot to that green, was irked by a roar of FRRREEEEDOOOOOMMM on his backswing, and so turned around and yelled “Shut the f**k up.” McIlroy then added his exclamation point by stuffing his approach to three feet.
Europe’s luxury is to have a dialled-in Grand Slam winner this week and ask whether he’s even the best drummer in the band.
Jon Rahm again paired up with Tyrrell Hatton, and again chiselled away at a bedrock American pairing, this time Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. Hatton could be relied upon to convert from six feet whenever he was needed, but Rahm brought the magic. When Hatton went way left with his tee shot on the par-three eighth, Rahm confronted by a hideous picture.
The ball was nestled in the bank of grass above the bunker, but with no stance, the ball above his knees and a tiny patch of green, Rahm sent the ball scuttling into the hole. Rahm raised his right arm in the air in celebration of the best shot of the Ryder Cup thus far.
Theirs was another match to end on the 16th green.
Only the anchor match went the distance, with Scottie Scheffler rejuvenated and Russell Henley losing some of his nervy white pallor. But Robert MacIntyre met the moment by holing putt after putt, a balance weight against Viktor Hovland’s wild fluctuations. The European duo led by two holes at the turn, but the US clawed themselves level on the 13th, only to fall behind again on the 14th. The Euros took their lead to the par-three 17th, at which point Hovland yanked his tee shot miles to the right, leaving it 90 feet from the hole.
The rowdy crowd chided MacIntyre for his pace of play, loudly counting up the seconds it took the Scot to thwack his putt 12 feet past the hole. Hovland had to make the putt to halve the hole, and once again scored to a count-up from the home fans, he poured it in the hole and flung his fist out in celebration.
The putt guaranteed at least a half-point in the match, while also ensuring that Europe would win the third session. And sure enough, Europe won the match on 18.
It was a morning across McIlroy set the tone, Rahm hit the best shot, and Hovland made the defining putt. Bryson DeChambeau alone cannot live with that.
