Key events
Schauffele’s drive at 1 has ended up in the middle of the bunch of trees to the right of the dogleg. Cantlay is forced to whip over the top of them. He does exceptionally well to land his ball in the middle of the green. Schauffele will have a look at birdie from 20 feet or so. Hatton has a much better angle of attack, and from 66 yards lands ten feet in front of the pin. His ball takes a couple of hops forward and stops a couple of inches away. That’ll be conceded. Big putt coming up for Schauffele now.
The third match takes to the 1st tee. Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton. Yay, yay, boo, boo, you know who cops for what. Rahm takes Europe’s first shot, and like Åberg earlier, sends it towards the trees down the right. Schauffele follows him there. Not an ideal start for either pairing.
1UP DeChambeau/Young v Fitzpatrick/Åberg (3)
1UP English/Morroy/Fleetwood (1)
Schauffele/Cantlay v Rahm/Hatton
There’s no stopping that man Cameron Young, who is already staking his claim to be the player of the tournament, he’s been that good. He chips in from the fringe to the side of the par-three 3rd, and the USA have another splash of red on the board. “Not a surprise to see Michael Jordan there,” begins Phil Crockford. “He is a very keen golfer, and once got banned from a golf course because he was wearing the wrong type of shorts. Obviously, he then bought a golf course a few miles up the road.”
1UP DeChambeau/Young v Fitzpatrick/Åberg (3)
1UP English/Morroy/Fleetwood (1)
McIlroy nearly holes that next shot! He’s not got much green to work with, but pops his chip onto the fringe, then rolls it out, straight towards the flag. Or straight until it’s last couple of turns, anyway, when it drifts a couple of millimetres to the left, enough for it to horseshoe out. So close to a gallery-busting birdie! And the pain doubles for Rory as English steers in his gentle left-to-right slider for birdie. The first splash of colour on today’s board is US red!
DeChambeau/Young A/S Fitzpatrick/Åberg (2)
1UP English/Morroy/Fleetwood (1)
Fleetwood’s second into 1 isn’t all that, missing the green to the right. The door’s open for Morikawa, who from 86 yards wedges over the flag … but doesn’t get too much backspin. He’s left English with a 15-footer for birdie, while McIlroy faces an awkward chip. Still advantage USA, but Morikawa’s missed the opportunity to put serious pressure on McIlroy’s next shot.
… but Young trundles his chip eight feet past. Fitzpatrick, with his trademark cross-handed chipping grip, wedges to tap-in distance. So close to a chip-in. But then Bryson, like Åberg on the 1st, rescues the situation by rolling in his putt. Tied after 2, and this is already shaping up to be quite the battle.
DeChambeau/Young A/S Fitzpatrick/Åberg (2)
English/Morikawa V Mcilroy/Fleetwood
Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young send their drives at 2 down the middle. Ludvig Åberg finds the green with his approach but the ball spins back into the fringe. Bryson should learn something about how receptive the greens are, but doesn’t, spinning America’s second back into the thicker stuff behind the fringe. Slight advantage to Europe here, with the not inconsiderable caveat of the hot-in-form Young taking Team USA’s next shot.
Back on the 1st tee, Rory McIlroy is roundly abused in the pantomime style. He throws back a couple of theatrical kisses to the gallery. A cheeky smile. All good knockabout fun. Everyone enjoying it. He takes the first shot of match two … but with the adrenalin pumping, lashes his drive into the gallery down the left! We’ve not seen anyone over there yet. McIlroy and his partner Tommy Fleetwood were excellent yesterday; their opponents here, Harris English and Collin Morikawa, not so much. But English starts well by finding the semi-rough down the right of the fairway. Advantage USA.
Bryson puts down his marker anyway. It’s clearly going to be conceded, but he’s not going to shoot Europe a glance begging for it. Looking needy? Nope! No sir. No quarter given. But when Fitzpatrick arrives on the scene, he tells DeChambeau to pick up his coin. Then Åberg rolls in the birdie putt, a glorious response to DeChambeau and Young’s perfect start, and gives the air a little rabbit punch himself. This is on! This’ll do just nicely! Seventeen more holes of this, please!
DeChambeau/Young A/S Fitzpatrick/Åberg (1)
Cameron Young was in stellar form yesterday, and he immediately keeps on keepin’ on. From the centre of the fairway, he lands his wedge 15 feet past the flag, then screws it back to tap-in distance! Sensational! In the stand, the living legend Michael Jordan, game recognising game, punches the air in delight. That’ll be a gimme birdie. Matt Fitzpatrick, from a tight angle in the rough to the right, wedges to ten feet. Under normal circumstances, we’d be praising that shot to the hilt. After what Young’s just done, that’s not going to happen. Åberg at least with a chance for birdie, though.
Luke Donald’s turn, and he’s asked about the positives he took from yesterday’s performance. “The resiliency of the guys … how they handled the moment … got off to a great start … finished strong … it gets loud when you cross the road but they handled it great … we celebrated yesterday because it was a great day for us but we know there’s a lot more work ahead … keep going … momentum … get some blue on the board early … we have a plan, depending on how this morning goes, either way … I’m very confident that whatever happens, we’ll be ready.”
Keegan Bradley dispenses some folksy charm on US television. “We’re ready for a fight … seems like New York has woken up a little bit here … crowd’s goin’ … I’m excited … I gotta good feeling about today … we’re currently in the firing-up zone right now, we’ll worry about pulling back later today … I just want [Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler] to be them, to go out there and be the best players they can be … be the leaders of this team and go out and get some points for us today!”
They’re at it again: “From! Cham !! beautiful !!! / cham !! beautiful !!! / of! Cham !! beautiful !!!” Bryson lost both of his matches yesterday, but he brought the noise regardless, and today’s partner Cameron Young was nigh-on perfect on his Ryder Cup debut in the afternoon, the main reason Ludvig Åberg and Rasmus Højgaard were shredded 6&5. (To be fair, Young’s partner Justin Thomas admitted as much, telling a post-match interviewer that he enjoyed the best seat in the house for the show Young put on.) So this is going to be quite a test for Åberg and Matt Fitzpatrick … and the former carves Europe’s opening tee shot towards the trees near the left-to-right dogleg. Not ideal. Bryson takes America’s first strike of the day, and larrups a beauty over the corner, landing his ball 40 yards shy of the green. Perfection. “De! Cham!! BEAU!!! / De! Cham!! BEAU!!! / De! Cham!! BEAU!!!” They’re at it again. Again!
The American fans have got themselves a new chant. Derived from the classic “U! S!! A!!! / U! S!! A!!! / U! S!! A!!!”, it goes “De! Cham!! BEAU!!! / De! Cham!! BEAU!!! / De! Cham!! BEAU!!!” before segueing back into a round of “U! S!! A!!! / U! S!! A!!! / U! S!! A!!!” This instant baroque classic is what greets the man himself, plus Team USA’s new hero, Cameron Young, as they take to the stage on the 1st tee. Wow. The partial will demur, but what a beautiful noise. Some atmosphere at Bethpage right here!
A reminder of the scores on the door after day one. This is what happened in the Friday morning foursomes …
DeChambeau/Thomas v Rahm/Hatton 4&3
Scheffler/Henley v Åberg/Fitzpatrick 5&3
Morikawa/English V mcilroy/Fleetwood 5&4
2Up Schaffele/Cantlay V MacIntyre/Hovland
… and here’s how things shook down in the afternoon fourballs …
Scheffler/Spaun in Rahm/Straka 3 & 2
Griffin/DeChambeau v Fleetwood/Rose 1UP
6 & 5 Young/Thomas V Åberg/Højgaard
Burns/Cantlay A/S McIlroy/Lowry
… which leaves us with the current scoreline of USA 5½-2½ Europe.
Preamble
Europe go into the second day of the 2025 Ryder Cup leading 5½-2½. That’s a damn fine position to be in. But it’s not quite as good as the 6½-1½ first-day advantage they established on US soil in 2004, or the 6-2 first-day leads they built Stateside in 1987 and 1999. And while Europe went on to win the first two of the three events we’ve just referenced, the third on that list was Brookline, so, well, y’know. Put it this way: no European golf fan worth their salt who lived through that will be counting their chickens just yet. So with much still to play for, these Saturday morning foursomes should be a whole world of fun (all times BST). It’s on!
12.10pm: Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Young v Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Aberg
12.26pm: Harris English and Collin Morikawa v Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood
12.42pm: Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay v Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton
12.58pm: Russell Henley and Scottie Scheffler v Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland
