The United States got off to a strong start on the first morning of the 42nd Ryder Cup and then completely ran out of gas.
Europe rallied in the afternoon by sweeping all four of the fourball matches, long a U.S. weakness, to take a 5-3 lead after the first day at Le Golf National Golf National on the outskirts of Paris.
The Europeans need 9½ points to regain the Ryder Cup and the Americans need 11 to keep it. The U.S. leads the all-time series, 26-13-2, but Europe has won eight of the last 11.
“There was a good feeling in the team room at lunch, a good vibe,” said European Captain Thomas Bjorn of Sweden. “I told them this was just another opportunity in the greatest golf event in the world and they went out and got the job done.
“But this is a marathon and there’s a long way to go. We’ll go back into the team room to regroup and get ready to go. There’s a lot of golf left to be played.”
In the afternoon, Henrik Stenson of Sweden and Justin Rose of England defeated Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler of Murrieta, 3 and 2; Ian Poulter of England and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland beat Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson, 4 and 2; Sergio Garcia of Spain and Alex Noren of Sweden trounced Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau of Clovis, 5 and 4, and Francesco Molinari (pictured left) of Italy and Tommy Fleetwood (right) of England routed Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, also by 5 and 4.
It was the ninth time in Ryder Cup history that a team swept a session, and each time that squad went on to win or retain the cup.
The U.S. got off to its 3-0 start in the morning when Tony Finau and Brooks Koepka edged Rose and Jon Rahm of Spain, 1 up; Johnson and Fowler got past McIlroy and Thorbjorn Oleson of Denmark, 4 and 2, Thomas and Spieth slipped past Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton, both of England, 1 up, before Molinari and Fleetwood defeated Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed, 3 and 1.
Fleetwood and Molinari were the only twosome to go 2-0 on day one.
“It was a tale of two sessions,” U.S. Captain Jim Furyk said. “We had the momentum by going 3-1 in the morning, and they flipped it in the afternoon. But the event is still pretty young, with only eight out of 28 points decided already.
“We have to come back tomorrow morning and shore things up a bit. With the afternoon going 4-0, we’ll just try to do better going into tomorrow morning. We didn’t do well in fourball, so we’ll take a look at it and probably make some changes in the afternoon.”
In Saturday mornings foursome matches Garcia and McIlroy will face Finau and Keopka, Casey and Hatton with play Johnson and Fowler, Molinari and Fleetwood will go against
Woods and Reed, and Poulter and Rahm will square off against Thomas and Spieth.
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