FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — If you showed up to this Ryder Cup knowing nothing about golf, you would wonder how likable nobody Scottie Scheffler could possibly keep up with the legendary Bobby MacIntyre. You would think it was cute when Bryson DeChambeau pumped his fist like he actually believed his team might win. You would feel bad for Collin Morikawa for ruining his one shot at the big stage with a lousy putter.
[SI at Ryder Cup Live — Morning Foursomes Results and Analysis]
Three sessions in, Europe leads the U.S., 8½ to 3½, and I’m not saying the Americans are dead, but the next song I expect to hear is “Taps.” This is a full-on throttling. I can think of some ways for the U.S. to win this, but they all involve food poisoning.
On Friday evening, U.S. captain Keegan Bradley pointed out they were basically one quarter of the way into a football game and his team was only down three points. Well, now it’s halftime, they’re down three touchdowns, Europe will receive the second-half kickoff, and they’re down to their third quarterback. Is it too late for Bradley to pick himself for the team?
Unless the U.S. pulls off an all-time unlikely rally, Bradley will get all sorts of flak for losing on home soil. It comes with the territory. He knows that. But to paraphrase an old saw from college sports: This Ryder Cup is not about the X’s and O’s, it’s about the James Jr.’s and Joseph IV’s.
Scheffler, who is far and away the world’s best player, has lost all three of his matches. You can’t pin that on Bradley. It’s just not been Scottie’s week. He and Russell Henley had several openings to come back and beat MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland Saturday morning, but Scheffler did not have his usual array of daggers. He hit it to 20 feet when you expected five. On the 18th hole, needing to win the hole to halve the match, Scheffler stood over a ball in the fairway, 116 yards from the pin, and hit his shot short and right, into rough that hates people. That was it—for Scheffler and Henley, for the U.S. hopes of a morning rally and probably for the Ryder Cup.
Yes, yes, yes: There is a lot of golf to be played. The math says it’s possible. But I don’t see how anybody who watched Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Jon Rahm this weekend can really believe in a U.S. comeback. I mean, MacIntyre has been great, but he isn’t even playing Saturday afternoon, and it’s hard to argue that he should.
The U.S. needs to capture 11 of the remaining 16 points. That means if they sweep McIlroy, Fleetwood and Rahm in fourballs and singles, they would still need to go 5–6 in all the other matches—which, based on how everybody has played, would be surprising in itself.
Europe brought a better and more accomplished team to this event. If I told you Thursday evening that Scheffler would lose his first three matches, would you have given the U.S. a chance?
Bradley sat rookie Ben Griffin for both sessions Saturday. Maybe that was the plan all along, or maybe Bradley’s plan had some wiggle room, but in the end, what’s the difference? The U.S. needs three points on Saturday afternoon to give itself a real chance Sunday.
There have been some amazing comebacks in the Ryder Cup over the years. Considering the scoreboard and the two rosters, a U.S. win might be more surprising than any of them.
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