Golf

Team USA goes back to its winning Ryder Cup lineup for Saturday morning

The action starts in the early morning (or late night) in the United States and runs into the early afternoon.

Sep 28, 2018, 5:15 PM UTC

2018 Ryder Cup - Morning Fourball Matches

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

The United States will wake up Saturday morning in Paris facing a 5-3 points deficit in the Ryder Cup. The Americans need to win 14 points by the end of competition to retain the Cup, which they won from the European team two years ago at Hazeltine in Minnesota. The Europeans need to post 14.5 points, which they ended Friday on pace to do.

Team USA had a solid early morning — really early, like starting at 2 a.m. on the East Coast — at Le Golf National on Friday. In fourball matches, the format where two golfers on each team play the hole as usual, and the team whose player gets the lowest score wins the hole, the Americans grabbed a 3-1 points advantage.

Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler cruised past Rory McIlroy and Thorbjørn Olesen, 4 & 2, winning by four holes and cutting the match short after 16 had been played. American pairings of Brooks Koepka/Tony Finau and Justin Thomas/Jordan Spieth also won in the morning, while the Tiger Woods/Patrick Reed team lost to Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood.

The afternoon was a disaster for the Americans, though. Europe won all four foursome matches, where players on each team alternate shots around the course. Woods, Koepka, Reed, and Finau all sat during the afternoon session, as Europe won 4-0 and finished the day with a 2-point advantage. It couldn’t have been worse for captain Jim Furyk’s side.

Saturday’s action airs on Golf Channel from 2 a.m.-3 a.m. ET and then then NBC from 3 a.m. until 1 p.m. or so ET, when matches end. The first part of the day will again be fourball, where every player plays his own shot up the hole, and the second part will again be alternate-shot. On Sunday, the tournament includes 12 singles matches.