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.
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.
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.
