After Friday afternoon’s sweep, Team USA needed to do work in the Saturday morning four-ball session at the Ryder Cup. It’s their preferred format and the 5-3 deficit meant they couldn’t lose ground before another afternoon foursomes session.
Rory McIlroy is back and Europe is dominating the Ryder Cup
The Euros are backing up their Friday afternoon rout with more dominance early on Saturday, and Rory McIlroy is leading from the front.
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
It’s going the wrong way for the USA, across the board. Team Europe is dominating again and it has started from the very front, where Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia are lighting up the USA duo of Tony Finau and Brooks Koepka.
McIlroy, who was the worst player on the course on Friday morning, has found that putting form we saw streak him to that Arnold Palmer Invitational win earlier this year. After not making a single birdie in four-ball on Friday morning, Rory is pouring them in from all over in what’s becoming a rout in that all-important leadoff match.
First came this enormous sloper just moments after Finau holed out from a bunker and appeared to win a hole for the USA side.
It’s hard to overstate how massive that response was after the Finau hole-out. It just kept the entire first match at arm’s length on the front nine and got Rory engaged again after his Friday afternoon comeback match alongside Ian Poulter.
At the par-3 8th hole, Rory would bomb in another putt to upstage an excellent Finau tee shot. The lengthy birdie whipped up the crowd and moments later, Finau would blow his much shorter birdie try to pretty much wipe out all hope in that leadoff match.
Rory is back. Sergio is back. They’re running away with the first point of Saturday. The Euros are dominating and this could be over early in Paris.
