Ryder Cup 2016: Leaderboard, live coverage, results and more from Friday’s matches

Golf fans get four major championships every year. But only once every two years do they get an opportunity to enjoy the stars of the game in the world’s premier team competition.

The Ryder Cup is here.

The TV networks are still in the process of figuring this out, so I’m not judging if you’re not aware of this yet. But Brooks Koepka is going to be a stalwart on American Ryder Cup teams for many years to come, and he held court on Friday afternoon at Hazeltine. His opening statement may not have been on display in your living room, but the patrons strolling the grounds off of Chaska, Minnesota saw a show, and they let him hear their appreciation.

Raised in Lake Worth, Florida, Brooks is the son of Bob and Sherry Koepka, and is an older brother to Chase. Bob himself is quite the stick, and once won seven straight club championships at Sherbrooke Country Club in Lake Worth. His successor? His son, Brooks, who won two straight club championships at the ages of 13 and 14. The club champion parking spot had to be turned into a bike rack.

The opening day at the Ryder Cup went two very distinct ways from the first session to the second, but it delivered on what we expect and was an instant reminder of why this is the best event in golf. It was my first day ever attending a Ryder Cup and here are three things I’ll always remember.

A day that started as an American rout ended with the most dynamic force on either team making a huge statement that there’s still a long way to go in this Ryder Cup.

The United States opened the 2016 Ryder Cup in dominating fashion on Friday, sweeping the foursome matches of the opening session. Now, the Americans will attempt to add to their 5-3 overall lead in the final foursomes session on Saturday morning.

To little surprise, the United States will turn back to many of the pairings that found success on Friday. Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed improved to 3-0 as a team in the Ryder Cup Friday morning (though they later dropped their afternoon match), and they will anchor the United States’ lineup on Saturday.

The Europeans, fresh from a clean sweep at the hands of Team USA in morning foursomes at Hazeltine, ended the day by taking the momentum into Saturday’s second session after taking three of four afternoon fourball matches.

Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose exacted revenge on Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth, 3&2 winners on Friday morning, when they put the first blue points on the board with a 5&4 drubbing of the American power duo.

Danny Willett, thanks to his brother’s anti-American rant leading up to the Ryder Cup, knew he could be in for a rough Friday at Hazeltine.

The pro-USA spectators, as Pete Willett predicted in his humorous but crude blog, proved themselves to be, if not “fat, stupid, greedy,” then certainly “classless,” as they mercilessly booed and heckled the reigning Masters champ during the afternoon fourball matches.

Eight years of frustration and two years of waiting boiled over into the moment the entire game of golf has been pining for — the first tee at Hazeltine on Friday morning. Flood lights illuminated the scene well before the sun came up, and the stands were at capacity a full hour before the first tee shots.

A group of like-dressed American fans in USA hockey jerseys and Viking hats (for some reason) tried to ignite the crowd with their songs and chants. They even got a laugh out of Tiger Woods when they asked “Where’s the beverage cart?” Woods turned around and shrugged his shoulders while giving them a smile, as if to say, “I was wondering the same thing.”

The United States, for the first time since 1981, swept the foursomes portion of the Ryder Cup, sending a strong message to the Europeans that this year’s edition of the biennial event will have a different outcome from most of the recent ones.

Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth drew first blood in Friday morning’s foursomes when Spieth drilled a birdie putt on the second hole. A few hours later, the duo then went on to clobber Henrik Stenson and Justin Reed, 3&2, when Reed holed a lengthy birdie putt on the 16th to put the first red points on the board.

That much-derided task force is looking pretty smart about now, huh?

The United States is off to its best start in decades at the Ryder Cup, taking all four morning foursomes matches over the three-times-running European champions. It’s a contrasting bright spot from the disaster at Gleneagles in 2014, and it set the morning tone for an American beatdown of Europe.

Phil Mickelson is nothing if not entertaining off the tee, as his wicked pull out of bounds on the sixth hole of the morning foursome match at Hazeltine proved.

A reload from partner Rickie Fowler in the alternate-shot format wasn’t a whole lot better, but at least it gave Lefty a shot — right-handed with his iron turned backwards.

The 2016 Ryder Cup tees off on Friday at Hazeltine in Chaska, Minn., and runs through Sunday, with fans able to watch greatly expanded live TV coverage as well as follow the action online and on the radio.

While Europe has dominated the event of late, winning eight of the last 10 matches, the U.S. is the oddsmakers’ favorite to end a three-game losing streak and avoid becoming the first American squad in the history of the biennial event to lose four straight cups. Playing in front of a friendly midwestern crowd, this could be the year for Team USA — though home cooking did not do much for the 12-man unit that blew a final-day lead four years ago at Medinah.

The 2016 Ryder Cup begins Friday morning from Hazeltine National Golf Club. Four years after the last Ryder Cup on United States soil, and after months of speculation over who would make the teams, the players are finally ready to tee it up.

There is no event in golf like the Ryder Cup, and if the week of practice leading up to the first matches is any indication, it’s going to be a raucous and energetic scene in Minnesota. It all starts with alternate-shot foursomes Friday morning.

It’s already been an eventful week at the 2016 Ryder Cup with some solid banter between the teams, and even a little controversy. And that’s all happened without a player hitting a single shot that counted. That will change on Friday when the best event in golf begins for the 41st time.

Golf Channel and NBC will combine on the television coverage this week, but it will be Golf Channel handling the Day 1 coverage. The TV broadcast will begin at 8:30 a.m. and run until at least 7 p.m. That will allow viewers to catch all of the action live as it unfolds. Viewers will also have options to stream online with Golf Channel providing a simulcast stream of the TV coverage and a stream dedicated to the first tee.

The first eight of 28 possible points at the 2016 Ryder Cup will be up for grabs on Friday as the players tee up at Hazeltine National Golf Club for the first time. After a year off in 2015, the Ryder Cup is back to claim its place as the most anticipated event in golf.

The event is back on United States soil for the first time since 2012 and the crowd at Hazeltine seems primed for an intense atmosphere. The players will get the first taste of what’s to come with alternate-ball foursomes to begin the day on Friday. From all indications, it’s going to be quite a spectacle on the grounds. Fortunately for everyone not in Minnesota, NBC and Golf Channel will combine for extensive coverage.

The Ryder Cup is officially underway -- and now we know who’ll kick off play in the Friday morning, alternate-shot style foursome pairings. After the Opening Ceremony concluded, USA captain Davis Love III and European captain Darren Clarke made the announcement of the eight players per team who will take to the course Friday morning -- and their playing competitors from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

For the Americans, the 2014 Cup’s most dynamic duo is back together once again. Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed -- the lone bright spot for the Stars and Stripes at Gleneagles — will match up together for the third straight international team competition. They’ll be expected to set the tone for the Americans on Friday morning, but they’ll have a stiff test.

Phil Mickelson wants a mulligan on his sharp criticism of Hal Sutton’s captaincy of the 2004 Ryder Cup, while Danny Willett wishes his brother would just shut up.

The pre-Ryder Cup controversies hit the mea culpa stage, after Mickelson slammed Sutton for setting him and Tiger Woods up for failure at Oakland Hills a decade ago, and Pete Willett caused his Ryder Cup-playing brother consternation by insulting all things American.

The war of words between the U.S. and Europe has escalated to fever pitch before the first ball has been struck in the battle between the two teams set for Friday’s start to the Ryder Cup.

An unlikely source of fightin’ words began the skirmish when Lee Westwood said last week that assistant U.S. captain Tiger Woods could have an “adverse effect” on the team. But that was just the opening salvo in the volley of verbiage that had yet to be unleashed.

Team Europe has won six of the last seven Ryder Cup tournaments over the United States, including wins in each of the last three events. Despite Europe’s domination over the last two decades, the team will enter this year’s tournament as an underdog.

Europe is going off as a +145 underdog to win this event in Minnesota at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The Americans are a commanding -185 favorite to win the Ryder Cup this year on home soil.