By Rahul Banerji
Two sessions on day one of Ryder Cup 2018 action. And two contrasting narratives.
Europe gave away the advantage in the morning four-balls to go 1-3 down in the 28-match tie at the Le Golf National course near Paris on Friday.
With their rankings superiority, America looked to be well away in defence of their 2016 title.
Yet, it was all very different mere hours later as Europe came storming out of the starting gate, and were never headed in the afternoon foursomes.
The hosts won their only match of the first session when Francesco Molinari and Cup debutant Tommy Fleetwood blasted past Patrick Reed and the resurgent Tiger Woods 3&1.
Woods said later, “It’s disappointing and frustrating for Pat and I to not contribute to the team. When you lose a point, you feel like you’ve contributed but you’re contributing to the wrong team.”
By then, Rory McIlroy and Thorbjorn Olesen had lost 2&4 to Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose and John Rahm fell to Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau 1-down, and Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth shaded Paul Casey and Tyrell Hatton 1-up.
It was a very different story in the afternoon’s alternate shot format.
For one, Team America captain Jim Furyk benched Tiger Woods.
Role reversal
Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose then saw off Johnson and Fowler 3&2 while McIlroy and Ian Poulter fought back to beat Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson 4&2.
Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren were seven up after nine holes against veteran Phil Mickelson and newbie Bryson DeChambeau before sealing it 5&4. Molinari and Fleetwood then came together again to hammer Thomas and Spieth also by 5-4
Not since 1989 have Europe won all four matches in a session, and never before had they done it in a foursomes. Team USA were left rocking on their heels at the ferocity of the fightback.
It set things up very nicely for Saturday’s reverse sequence of paired matches ahead of Sunday’s straight fight of 12 singles matches.
Garcia’s feat
In all the excitement, there was a personal landmark too.
Sergio Garcia capped 19 years of Ryder Cup play with a nine-point haul from the foursomes match alongside Noren against Mickelson and DeChambeau to take his points haul to 23.5 to draw level with Scotsman Colin Montgomerie.
Spain’s Garcia is now just 1.5 points short of Nick Faldo’s all-time Europe record of 25.
Friday results: Europe lead 5-3
Session 1: Four-ball
Finau/Koepka vs. Rose/Rahm: USA wis 1-up
Fowler/Johnson vs. McIlroy/Olesen: USA win 4&2
Spieth/Thomas vs. Casey/Hatton: USA win 1-up
Woods/Reed vs. Molinari/Fleetwood: Europe win 3&1
Session 2: Foursomes
Johnson/Fowler vs. Rose/Stenson: Europe win 3&2
Simpson/Watson vs. Poulter/McIlroy: Europe win 4&2
DeChambeau/Mickelson vs. Garcia/Noren: Europe win 5&4
Spieth/Thomas vs. Molinari/Fleetwood: Europe win 5&4
Saturday morning pairings:
Koepka/Finau (USA) vs McIlroy/Garcia
Johnson/Fowler (USA) vs Paul Casey/Tyrell Hatton
Woods/Reed (USA) vs Molinari/Fleetwood
Thomas/Speith (USA) vs Poulter/Rahm.
Read also: Is player form a worry for US Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk?
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