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Ryder Cup Rundown: At the halfway point, it’s a runaway

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8 months ago

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Three sets of partner matches have been completed, and the host side is determined to finish this exhibition before the singles matches arrive on Sunday. The European team needs five more points to take the trophy, and four points are at stake in the Saturday afternoon matches. Although it’s mathematically impossible to make five out of four, that’s the only thing that has seemed impossible for this dogged group of continental golfers. Getting as close to the magical 14.5 points is their goal, and Team USA needs to play its best golf or the outcome will be all but concluded. Perhaps it was the magical, practice-round ace on a par four by Hovland that cast the spell; certainly something has this host squadron playing with an enviable resolution. Let’s see how we arrived at this point with a midway, Ryder Cup Rundown.

Day One @ Morning Foursomes: Table for Four

In the alternate-shot competition, synchronicity and symbiosis need arrive to a dangerous balance, or a pairing will founder. The Blue side never saw the 18th tee on day one’s opening matches; it didn’t need to. Europe won all four matches on the penultimate green or earlier, and the Red team quickly found itself in a four-point hole. Leading the way were Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, who were the subject of a comical curse-off debate, with Hatton affirming that he was the greater swearer of the two, despite Rahm’s fluency in three languages (don’t forget Euskera.) They dispatched Scheffler and Burns, who won but one hole, by a 4 & 3 tally.

Next came the partnership of Hovland and Aberg, and it was the ebullient Norwegian and the young Austrian who came out on top. Their opponents, Max Homa and Brian Harman, were never in the match past hole six. The first sextet of holes were all won, four by the hosts and two by the visitors. None was more dramatic than the from-the-green chip-in by Hovland, on the opening putting surface. The match settled down thereafter, with Europe playing solid golf and adding two more wins to claim the match, 4 & 3.

Matches three and four were more competitive, with the California duo of Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa matched against Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka, while the previously-unbeatable partnership of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay took on the European veteran power couple of Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood. Many myths were turned into dust on the first morning, and these two matches were no different. Lowry and Straka were four hole up by the turn, and while Cali fought back, it could only gain back two holes, falling on the 17th green. The morning’s fourth match was even closer, with Europe taking a two-hole lead by the eighth green, but America making a resolute charge back, winning the ninth. The inward half saw five holes won, against three halved. Three of those wins were European, and thus was the match also decided by the penultimate green.

Day One @ Afternoon Four-ball: The halves and the halve-not

If the morning was a scorcher, the afternoon was an oddity. The visiting side had an opportunity to win each of the first three matches on the final hole at Marco Simone, and it failed each time. Hovland and Hatton matched games with Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, both of whom sat out the morning competition. Each pairing won four holes, with Europe claiming the last won, at hole 16. The closing two holes were halved, and Europe escaped with a critical, half-point against the USA’s formidable bromance.

Next up was the battle of Rahm and Nikolai Højgaard (the later making his Ryder Cup debut) and Scheffler and Brooks Koepka (the first LIV golfer to compete in these matches.) Again was the battle joined, and this one saw each side claim five holes from the opposition. All square at the 15th tee, it was USA going one-up, the Europe winning 16. Next, the USA claimed 17, but Europe responded to steal back a half point and take a 5-1 lead into match three.

As if more drama was need, well, it came. The American duo of Homa and Wyndham Clark (another first-time appearance) wrestled with Robert MacIntyre (first-ever for him) and Justin Rose (first this year for him) and It was apparent that Homa-Clark were out for blood. They claimed four of the first 14 holes, and stood two to the good on the 15th tee. They even won the 16th hole, but somehow, only gained a half point. Yup, Europe won 15, 17, and 18, to commit the greatest heist of 2023. At this juncture, every half point means the world, and the Bluo (blue duo) let a large one slip away.

After those matches, the fourth was a disappointment, unless you like to acknowledge that Rory McIlroy has placed this team on his back and is carrying it to the podium. Mac and Fitz (Matt Fitzpatrick got on course) throttled another California pairing (Morikawa and Schauffele) by a 5 & 3 tally. The European side committed the incomprehensible shock of claiming holes two through seven, to jump out to a 6-up lead with eleven to play. No one in their right mind actually believed that all eleven holes would be played, so the betting had to base itself on how long could the West Coast stay alive. X and C made it to the 15th green, winning holes and 11 and 12 to salvage some pride, before Mac and Fitz put them away with one final birdie.

Day Two @ Morning Foursomes: Mor(ning) of the same

Down by 6.5 to 1.5, Team USA needed some sort of statement, with the possibility of recouping four points and closing the margin to one, a distinct possibility. Well, it was a distinct possibility for about one minute. McIlroy and Fleetwood went out first this time, and promptly won the first three holes, to set the tone. Team USA won six holes during the match, but Team EURO never let up. Mac and Fleet claimed another five holes, including the decisive 17th, to win the match by 2 & 1. By this point, even the most ardent westerner had to sense that something was afoot.

However, if hope was still in the offing, along came Hovland and Aberg again, and what they did was simply insulting. They won nine of the first eleven holes against Scheffler and Koepka, and denied the American duo even a single won hole. That’s right: Hovland and Aberg took the match by a tally of 9 & 7, possibly sending the Americans deep into a funk that required a bit of meditation and self-therapy. That was the largest winning margin in Ryder Cup history.

Match three finally saw the visitors play as they should. Max Homa and Brian Harman were strong through the middle of the round, winning hole 8, 10, 11, and 12. This took them to a three-up advantage over Lowry and Straka, and Blue then claimed the 16th to win by 4 & 2. To this juncture, the matches had been a series of runs, and each of those had been three- and four-hole wins by the hosts.

The final match of day two’s morning tilts featured the Brothers Curse, Rahm and Hatton. Eschewing vulgarities, the pair jumped out to a three-up lead through eight, then gave away four of the next six holes (winning one) before surging back at the end to win 16 and 17, along with a 2 & 1 match victory. Try as they might, Cantlay and Schauffele turned one again into Can’t Play and Look Away and lost a crucial point when they were on the verge of winning it.

Summary Verdict: It doesn’t look good, or it looks great

It’s all about perspective. Captain Zach Johnson suggested that Team USA was a bit under the weather physically. If that’s the case, bad luck. One cannot argue that Team EURO has played inspired and spectacular golf. It teams better than any golf group on the earth, and that’s bad news for their opponents. Team USA has always played well in singles, and it will need to claim at least eight matches on Sunday to have any chance of cup retention. Stay tuned!

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Ronald Montesano writes for GolfWRX.com from western New York. He dabbles in coaching golf and teaching Spanish, in addition to scribbling columns on all aspects of golf, from apparel to architecture, from equipment to travel. Follow Ronald on Twitter at @buffalogolfer.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. PJ

    Oct 1, 2023 at 2:14 pm

    It was over before it started when Zach’s Johnson decided to stack the team with his buddies and not the best players. Good job Zach’s Johnson

    Reply Report comment

  2. Andy

    Oct 1, 2023 at 12:00 pm

    Åberg is Swedish – not Austrian or anything else. Should be easy to check.

    Reply Report comment

  3. Julia

    Sep 30, 2023 at 5:05 pm

    Visit for more detail about Online jobs……………………………..https://webcash16.blogspot.com/

    Reply Report comment

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News

Tour Rundown: Rose blooms, Rory rolls

Published

6 hours ago

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May 13, 2024

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This week last year, I found myself praying to the weather goddesses and gods that Rochester would be spared their wrath over the next seven days. The 2023 Oak Hill PGA Championship (that was slated for August when the contract was signed) was on the horizon, and I wanted my region to show well. Things turned out fine, with all four seasons making an appearance, a PGA Professional (Blockie!) stealing hearts, and a proven champion in Koepka (although I was pulling for Viktor.)

This year, no concerns. Louisville will shine this week at Valhalla, but we’ve matters to consider before we look to four days of coverage this week. Nelly did not win on the LPGA this week, so who did? The PGA Tour held two events in the Carolinas, and Tour Champions celebrated a major event in Alabama. Four noteworthy events to run down, so let’s head to RunDownTown and take care of business.

LPGA @ Founders Cup: Rose blooms

There was a sense that Rose Zhang might have a role in the 2020s version of the LPGA. After winning everything there was in amateur golf, she came out and won her first tournament as a professional. That was last May and, let’s be honest, who among us thought it would take 12 months for Zhang to win again? Rhymes with hero, I know.

This week in New Jersey, eyes were on Nelly Korda, as she made a run at a sixth consecutive win on the LPGA circuit. Korda ran out of gas on Saturday, and that was just fine. Madelene Sagstrom and Zhang had turned the soiree at Upper Montclair into a battle of birdies. Gabriela Ruffels came third at nine-under par. No one else reached double digits under par but Sagstrom and Zhang. They didn’t just reach -10…they more than doubled it.

Sagstrom had the look of a winner with five holes left to play. She was three shots clear of Zhang, at 23-under par. The Swede played her closing quintet in plus-one, finishing at 22-deep, 13 shots ahead of Ruffels. That performance we’d anticipated from Zhang? It happened on Sunday. She closed with four birdies in five holes to snatch victory number two, by two shots. Spring is a lovely time for a Rose in bloom.

PGA Tour @ Wells Fargo: Rory the Fourth is crowned in Charlotte

Xander Schauffele is a likable lad. He has an Olympic gold medal on his shelf, and a few PGA Tour titles to his credit. Even X knows that even par won’t get much done in a final round unless conditions are brutal. They weren’t brutal at Quail Hollow on Sunday. X posted even par on day four. It kept him ahead of third-place finisher Byeong Hun An but gave him zero chance of challenging for the title.

Paired with Xander in round four was the King of Quail, Rory McIlroy. The Northern Irishman had previously won thrice at the North Carolina track, and he was champing at the bit to gain some momentum on the road to Louisville. While Xander scored increasingly worse along the week (64-67-70-71) McIlroy saved his best round for the final round. Thanks to five birdies and two eagles, McIlroy ran away with the event, winning his fourth Wells Fargo by five over Schauffele.

PGA Tour @ Myrtle Beach Classic: a little CG won the inaugural week

It always seemed odd that the PGA Tour had zero stops along the Grand Strand each season. This week’s event seemed odd in that the golfers played the same course each day, and there were zero handicaps involved. Most events at Myrtle Beach involve hundreds of amateurs at dozens of courses, with all sorts of handicaps.

The Dunes Club is a Robert Trent Jones Sr. course, down toward Pawley’s Island. It claims what used to be considered an unreachable, par-five hole, the watery 13th. Nothing is unreachable any longer, including a 22-under par total for a six-shot win. Chris Gotterup, a former Rutgers and Oklahoma golfer, played sizzling golf all week and won by a sextet of shots. Gotterup opened with 66, then improved to 64 on Friday. His Saturday 65 sounded a beacon of “come get me,” and his closing 67 ensured that second place was the only thing up for grabs.

Chasing the podium’s second level were a bunch of young Americans. In the end, Alastair Docherty and Davis Thompson reached 16-deep, thanks to rounds of 64 and 68 on Sunday. They held off six golfers at 15-under par. The victory was Gotterup’s first on tour and should be enough to get him a Wikipedia page, among other plaudits.

PGA Tour Champions @ Regions Traditions: Vindication for Dougie

Doug Barron, if I recall correctly, was suspended by the Powers That Be, way back in 2009, for testosterone. He was naturally low in the hormone, so he took supplements. This did not sit well with certain admins, so he was put on the shelf for 18 months. Not cool.

In 2019, Barron came out on the Tour Champions. He won in August. The next year, despite the craziness of Covid, he won again.  Barron hit a dry spell for a few years. He kept his card, but accrued no additional victories. In late April, Barron showed serious signs of life, with a t2 at Mitsubishi. This week in Birmingham, he jumped out to a lead, lost it, then gained it back on Saturday. With major championship glory on the line, Barron brought the train into the station with 68 on Sunday.

Stephen Alker, the man who could not lose just two years ago, gave serious chase with a closing 63. He moved up 11 slots, into solo 2nd on Sunday. He finished two shots back of the champion. Two shots ain’t much. Cough once and you drop a pair. Third place saw a three-way tie, including last year’s winner (Steve Stricker) and runner-up (Ernie Els.) Despite the intimidating presence of the game’s greats, however, Doug Barron had more than enough of everything this week, and he has a third Tour Champions title to show off.

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Equipment

Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?

Published

3 days ago

on

May 10, 2024

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.

The timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?

Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.

When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.

To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.

Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.

“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.

“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”

Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.

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Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

Published

4 days ago

on

May 9, 2024

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Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.

This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.

Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.

The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.

Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.

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