Ryder Cup Recap - Roman ruins for USA

Wow!!! Just Wow!!! The Ryder Cup held over the weekend was an absolutely sensational event. What a spectacle of golf over three action packed days at Marco Simone Golf Course in Rome, Italy. Europe reclaimed the Cup with a dominant 16.5 to 11.5 victory, leaving the USA team in ruins (pun intended) and extending their unbeaten streak on home soil to at least 34 years.

Day 1 saw the European team absolutely massacre Team USA, sweeping the morning session of foursomes 4-0. The trend continued in the afternoon fourballs and by the end of Day 1, the European team led the USA 6 ½ to 1 ½. The US team, boasting a star-studded line up that was much stronger on paper, was completely bewildered by the performance they had seen from the Euros. It was an ambush in Rome leaving the USA’s chances on life support early in the tournament.

On Day 2, the US team was more competitive and the points for the day were split evenly 4-4 across the morning foursomes and afternoon fourballs. By the end of Day 2, the score was 10 ½ to 5 ½ in the Euro's favour. But the real story of Saturday was “hat-gate”. During Saturday, Sky Sports reporter Jamie Weir broke a story on Twitter that the US team room was “fractured”, and that Patrick Cantlay was the leader of the discontent. The source of Cantlay’s discontent was alleged to be his unhappiness with not being paid to play in the Ryder Cup, and he was apparently staging a protest against this by not wearing the Team USA hat in his matches. The story spread like wildfire across Marco Simone Golf Course, and the European supporters did not hold back in sledging Cantlay as he played his fourball match against Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick. Take a look at the “hats off for your bank account” chant directed at “Patty Ice”.

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The Hat-gate saga really escalated late in the fourball match involving Cantlay/Clark and McIlroy/Fitzpatrick. The Euro pair were 1-Up through 16 holes when Cantlay stuffed his tee shot close on the par 3 17th, making for a vital birdie to win the hole and put the match all square with 1 to play. On the par 5 18th, both McIlroy and Cantlay were on the green for 3, with the advantage to Rory with a much shorter birdie putt. But despite constant jeering from the pro-Euro crowd, Cantlay clutched up and landed a bomb to put the pressure right back on Rory, who was unable to match the birdie putt, giving the match to the USA pair 1-Up.

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The controversy on 18 reached fever pitch after the match, with McIlroy irate at Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava, for celebrating far too long on the 18th green after Cantlay had made the putt. Footage also showed the caddie may have interfered with Rory’s line for his crucial birdie putt whilst the pair traded verbal barbs as McIroy was trying to save the match. Tensions boiled over after the round in the car park of Marco Simone. McIlroy, who admitted to being the most furious he’s ever been after a round of golf, was filmed shouting and remonstrating to members of the USA team about the incident. Justin Thomas’ caddy, Jim “Bones” Mackay sought to intervene, before Europe teammate and fellow Irishman Shane Lowry stepped in to shepard a white-hot McIlroy into a car and diffuse the situation. Of course, the footage found its way to Twitter.

Day 3, the final day of play, saw the crucial 12 Singles matches play out before monster crowds. Only needing 4 points to win back the Ryder Cup, Euro Team Captain Luke Donald showed surgical precision with the strategic ordering of his team for the Singles - front loading big guns Jon Rahm, McIlroy and Viktor Hovland all within the first 4 matches, whilst keeping the in-form Tommy Fleetwood in the tail of the field just in case things got tight at the end of the day. Rahm and Scottie Scheffler slugged it out through an epic match that came down to the last hole where Rahm birdied the par 5 to halve the match. Hovland made light work of his opponent Collin Morikawa whipping him 4&3 and McIlroy, fired up from the events of the evening before, took down Sam Burns 3&1. This gave Team Europe 2 ½ points in the first 4 matches and effectively shut the gate on a USA comeback.

Some solid USA singles performances came from the likes of Brooks Koepka, Max Homa, Cantlay, Justin Thomas and Xander Shauffelee, who all won their matches, but it was a case of too little too late for the USA team. The singles matches on Day 3 were split 6-6, meaning that the damage inflicted by the Euros on Day 1 was ultimately the difference. All in all, an incredible 3 days of golf, and such a shame we have to wait 2 years before we get to enjoy it again - this time on US soil at the iconic Bethpage Black golf course in New York.

How the Players performed

Much will be made of the players’ individual performances and also the selections made by the respective Captains, Luke Donald and Zach Johnson. Donald is being heralded as the cool, calm and collected Captain that fostered a quiet confidence and self-belief in his team which manifested into great things on the course. On the flip side, Johnson is under intense scrutiny for allowing his players to have such a long break from competitive golf (most of the US players last played tournament golf at the Tour Championship in late August) and also overlooking LIV Golf players Bryson Dechambeau, Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed - all of whom are either in great form or have strong Ryder Cup records.

But what do the stats show about the 24 players that teed it up at Marco Simone? The full points breakdown is shown below, but a few key call outs:

• Rory McIlroy - he always seems to have a lot to say on a lot of topics, but Rors put his money where his mouth is and delivered in this Ryder Cup with 4 wins from 5 matches. Definitely led the way for the Euros.

• Scottie Scheffler - the current World #1 (according to OWGR) did not win a single match, despite playing in 4 of the 5 sessions. Putting was a problem again for him.

• Max Homa - the standout performer of the US team, playing in all 5 sessions and delivering 3 wins and 1 half. If only he would swing his arms when he walks (haha…Seinfeld reference for those that know!)

• Viktor Hovland - arguably the best player in the world at the moment, Viktor was the only other Euro player aside from Rory to play all 5 sessions and he produced in the big moments banking 3.5 points.

• Jordan Speith & Rickie Fowler - the poorest performers for USA and probably overall (Hojgaard is a rookie and can be cut some slack). Much more was expected of these two, and despite rumours of Rickie having COVID, both of them left much to be desired.

Ryder Cup Quick Bites

So much was happening on the course this week at the Ryder Cup, you might have missed some of these quick bites. Click on the links to catch up:

• Brooks Koepka stirring the pot with some key teammates wearing LIV Golf merch and a caption that might cause some controversy. “I make money moves.”

• Viktor Hovland making an ace on a par 4 in a Ryder Cup practice round.

• Team Europe celebrations looked lit. “Europe’s on fire, USA is terrified.”

• Ryder Cup fan takes a dip at Marco Simone.

Schedule for the Week

Your golfing schedule for the week, and how to watch is below:

• PGAT: Sanderson Farms Championship - Country Club of Jackson (Mississippi), $7.9m purse, Friday 6/10 to Monday 9/10 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 6am Friday.

• DPWT: Alfred Dunhill Links Championship - The Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie Links and Kingsbarns Links (Scotland), $5m purse, Thursday 5/10 to Sunday 8/10 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 9.30pm Thursday.

• LPGA: The Ascendant - The Colony (Texas), $1.8m purse, Friday 6/10 to Monday 9/10 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 2am Friday.

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Thanks again for your support and readership. We’ll be back next week with a debrief of The Shank Show’s recent tour to the Mornington Peninsular where we played 3 great courses and stayed in some world class accommodation.