Farmingdale, NY – The world’s number one player was watching anything other than the first day of Beth Page Black’s Ryder Cup.
Scottie Scheffler took part in the event in the hopes of dominating, as he did in the PGA Tour and majors this year. Instead, the three major winners did not win in both sessions on Friday, and always 2-4-2 in the event. He has not scored all points since 2021 and has been performed in the Whistle Strait.
“When you’re the number one player in the world, you might not have been his best, there are days when you bouncing back,” said U.S. team captain Keegan Bradley. “We’re not worried about Scotty Schaeffler.”
Schaeffler, who played with JJ Spaun in the afternoon 4-ball, wasn’t as sharp as it was usually from tee to green, seemed confused multiple times on the green, and seemed lacking putts.
“We gave us a lot of opportunities,” Schaeffler said. “It really didn’t make enough putts for me.”
However, the most impressive result came on the morning when Schaeffler and Fourthoms partner Russell Henry lost 5 and 3 to LudvigÅberg and Matt Fitzpatrick.
“We didn’t make enough putts right away. We had some chances,” Schaeffler said. “I don’t think the putt fell.”
Putting was a highly controversial topic amongst American players who struggled on Friday. Bryson Deccanbeau, who played with Justin Thomas in the morning and Justin Thomas in the afternoon, and Ben Griffin in the afternoon, also lost both matches.
“They made it all,” Deccanbeau said. “It felt like I was a clutch when I needed it, but… there were a lot of putts that I didn’t just go for us. Fortune is now on their side.”
Bradley cited several times more pats made by Europeans. And he inserted Cameron Young into the Foursome lineup in place of Saturday’s Thomas, but the remaining pairings, Colin Morakawa and Harris English (who fell to 5s and 4s to Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood) once again thrills it in the morning session.
“We’re stuck with our plans,” Bradley said. “We’re in panic and we’re not going to make that kind of mistake. We’re going to stick to what we know.”
According to Datagolf, Morikawa and English pairing is the worst potential tandem of any of the 132 possible combinations of any team based on the strokes obtained.
“We came here with plans this week, and the players are ready for that plan,” Bradley said. “We’re looking at the data. We’re looking at the strokes we get. We didn’t make any putts in the morning session. We really had little or none. Everything else was pretty good.”
Bradley said the message to the team after Friday highlighted that only 28% of the total points have been decided and there is still a lot of golf. But this is the fourth-largest deficit that US teams have faced on day one of the Ryder Cups in home soil, according to an ESPN study. Of the previous three, only one won with Brookline in 1999, as a result of the American team returning to victory.
“Listen, we knew this was difficult, we knew this was difficult,” Bradley said. “We didn’t expect to be here, but this is not a difficult week. …We have to prove that we have to go out there tomorrow and prove to everyone that they are down now.