Golf

The good, bad, and ugly from Saturday at the Ryder Cup

Europe extends its lead on another rough day for the American side. But it’s not hopeless, yet.

Sep 29, 2018, 5:25 PM UTC

2018 Ryder Cup - Afternoon Foursome Matches

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

The European lead is four. After the biggest blowout session in Ryder Cup history on Friday afternoon, the Euros extended their margin in two session on Saturday. They go to Sunday singles with a 10-6 lead.

That’s a score that will ring out for any close Ryder Cup watchers. It’s the same tally on Saturday night at Brookline and Saturday night at Medinah. The 1999 Cup and the 2012 Cup are arguably the two best in the respective histories of each side. A Sunday comeback is not out of the question for the USA, but they need a good chunk of their roster to start playing like the loaded group we’d heard about this entire summer. Europe is playing well and on a course that clearly suits the skill sets of their roster.

Here is the good, bad, and ugly from the second session on Saturday that left the USA in a deep hole with one more day to go (for a review of the AM session, including a roasting of Patrick Reed, go here).

The Good

Unbeatable

The Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood pairing becomes the first ever European duo to go 4-0-0 in one Ryder Cup. It’s a stunning piece of history given the power pairings that have come through that program, such as Seve-Ollie and Woosnam-Faldo.

I’d say Fleetwood got the lion’s share of the pub with his flashy long hair and lengthy highlight tape celebrating hole-clinching putts. It’s deserved. He has been spectacular, especially up on the green. But I kind of think Molinari isn’t getting enough credit and really flipped the entire day when he nearly aced the 11th hole this morning just minutes after Pat Reed and Tiger Woods finally evened their match.

Then Molinari went and made birdie on the next two holes. Three straight to completely snuff out the hobbling Reed-Woods duo that was thinking they had life when they pulled all-square. They put Woods on the mat early again in the afternoon and it was never close. Fleetwood is a killer, but I’m not sure who was better and that’s probably the debate you’re left with when a pairing dominates like that for two full days.

The new Seve & Ollie?

Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas are the present and future. At the start of the week, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee tried to quell the fury about splitting up Spieth and Patrick Reed, who had one of the best two-man records of all time and were closing in on Seve Ballesteros and Josa Maria Olazabal’s point total. Chamblee argued that the USA wasn’t breaking up Seve and Ollie, but rather starting a real Seve/Ollie duo that they could rely on for the next 10 to 15 years.

So far, Chamblee’s argument looks sound. While Reed has bombed, Thomas and Spieth have been the bright spot for the American side, winning three of their four matches and at least keeping it within possible striking distance.

The two are both playing well at different times, too. This is not some hot player carrying a team. Spieth would start a match on fire, stuffing it close and rolling the rock. Then JT would clean things up by getting hot on the back nine. Spieth was the one who finished off their second point of the day, and then mocked Ian Poulter’s patented chest thump to his face.

We all know the story — they have been close friends since early junior days. Now it’s cool to see both at the very top of the game and bringing it as teammates in the most significant and intense team competition on the planet. They both need to win their singles matches on Sunday.

#FreeWebb

Webb Simpson is good. Free Webb Simpson. I think he had a chance to be the best player on the U.S. team this week but never really got a chance, resigned to two Foursomes sessions with Bubba Watson. Webb was almost perfect on Saturday afternoon, save for a water ball on the second hole from the drop zone. But even there he converted a lengthy putt that ended up being good enough for a halve of the hole.

Webb did it all on Saturday, from a pured hyrbid that resulted in a conceded eagle at the 14th, to a massive birdie putt that officially slammed the door at the 16th hole. That’s a bonus point for the USA and one they had to have, as it turns out. Bubba was much improved on Saturday too, but Webb came through again and again to run away from the heavily favored Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren team.

Le Golf National

It may not check all the architecture boxes, but the one thing this course seems to do is create separation. Some of that is also poor play. But if you get out of position here, you’re not scrambling back easily for a birdie chance. This is far from the birdiefest we saw at Hazeltine and as a result, the steady play is seeing a greater reward with blowouts and clear-cut winners. Only one match went to the 18th hole through all four two-man sessions and not a single match was halved.

The Bad

He is an absolute Ryder Cup legend, but Ian Poulter’s record in the last two Ryder Cups is 1-3-2. The one victory came yesterday against the hapless Bubba. That is all.
Tiger Woods is 0-3 and was shaky again in the afternoon session, but his partner, Bryson DeChambeau did little to pick him up against the Molinari-Fleetwood team. DeChambeau would airmail a wedge over the green or Tiger would miss a fairway and it’s just too hard an opponent to keep up with doing that. Bryson kept burning the edges with the putter, which looked fine. But against that team, you need more than to have good-looking putts. You need to put them in the cup.
After draining one early against Spieth-Thomas, Rory popped back at a heckler who, presumably, told him he couldn’t putt. It was awesome and shades of the Rory in 2016 at Hazeltine, who entertained us with similar interactions.

But then Rory missed pretty much everything after this in the loss to Spieth and Thomas. There were short ones and medium-range ones. Rory has been critical to flipping this in the Euro’s favor after yesterday morning, but it’s not been all good.

Credit to Phil Mickelson for sitting down for the day. That’s part of what led to the press conference revolt in 2014 — a full Saturday benching. But he doesn’t have it right now and could have made it harder on Furyk to sit him for a full day. It’s obviously bad, however, that you have a roster spot being taken up by a guy who seems unplayable for a day.

The Ugly

Dustin Johnson has to be better. He’s the world No. 1 and should rightly play every single match. But he’s done little to bring home the points his team needs, and often got in the way. DJ and Brooks Koepka fittingly lost their match to Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose on a hole in which DJ drove it wild and then hit a piss poor chip shot that had him dropping his club to the ground in disgust. This came after he was a non-factor through the front nine this morning in four-ball, where he should be piling up birdies. The putting has been all over the place, as he changes putters and grips from day-to-day. So he’s not at his best, but you still need more from the No. 1 player in the world.
Pat Reed, because the roasting he took this morning was simply not enough. He’s done some work in his short Ryder Cup career, but his two days in Paris have featured some of the worst golf you’ll ever see in this kind of competition. Here’s hoping he spent the afternoon on the range listening to his Imagine Dragons playlist and trying to get it right for Sunday singles.

Here are your results from Saturday’s double session.

EUROPE LEADS, 10-6