Team Europe exudes pure jubilation as they bask in their triumphant Ryder Cup victory!
Well the most anticipated golf event of the year is finally over ! Europe reclaimed the Ryder Cup with a 16.5 to 11.5 victory over the United States at the Marco Simone golf club in Italy on Sunday. Europe led 10.5 to 5.5 going into the final session, a deficit that no team has ever overcome. Still, the Americans made a go of it and the event came down to the final three singles matches.
“At one point I was looking at the board trying to figure out how we get to 14.5 points,” European captain Luke Donald said. “But in the end, we got there easily.”
Tommy Fleetwood, playing in the penultimate singles match, delivered the winning point in a 3&1 victory over Ricky Fowler.
The result meant the United States futility in Europe continues for at least four more years (They haven’t won on the continent since 1993).
Here are IGW’s three takeaways from the event:
Europe’s Big Three delivered
Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, and Viktor Hovland are the current second, third, and fourth ranked players in the world. The Europeans needed them to lead the way if they were going to win the Ryder Cup and they did just that.
Jon and Rory #TeamEurope | @RyderCupEurope pic.twitter.com/W1HX15vr4o
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 1, 2023
McIlroy and Hovland each played in all five matches. McIlroy won four matches and lost just one. His 4 points were the most any player earned on either side. Hovland went 3-1-1, earning 3.5 points out of a possible 5, while Rahm, who played in four matches, went unbeaten with 2-0-2 record to pick up 3 points out of a possible 4.
In all, the trio combined to lose just two of their 14 matches. McIlroy and Hovland also delivered vital victories in their singles matches, while Rahm crucially won the 18 th in the opening singles to tie Scottie Scheffler and prevent the U.S. from putting the first point on the board on Sunday.
On top of those performances, Tommy Fleetwood, and Tyrell Hatton each won three of their four matches (Hatton, like Rahm, also went unbeaten with 3-0-1 record).
As for Scheffler, the World No. 1 failed to win any of his four matches. He earned just 1 point out of a possible 4, and he and Brooks Koepka were on the wrong end of a 9&7 defeat to Viktor Hovland & rookie Ludwig Aberg in the Saturday morning foursomes.
That’s the biggest defeat in the 97 year history of the Ryder Cup. Xander Schauffle, the third-highest ranked American at No. 6, also won only one of his matches.
On the American side only Max Homa, who went 3-1-1 to pick up 3.5 points, won more matches than he lost.
The Americans lost the cup on the first day
There’s a statistic floating around that says the team with the lead after the first day wins the Ryder Cup 70 per cent of the time. Europe decided to open with foursomes instead of fourballs for the first time since 1993. Foursomes are a traditional strength for the Europeans and the strategy paid off big time as they went a perfect 4-0 to rock the Americans.
Love this. Love @Maxhoma.
— Jake Marsh (@PMTsportsbiz) September 30, 2023
Donald, the European captain, got his pairings spot on, while Zack Johnson, the American captain got his horribly wrong. He left out four major winners in Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, and Wyndham Clark on the first morning.
Thomas, Spieth and Kopeka are also cup veterans, so while the absence of each of them could be justified, it meant the American pairings that did go out on Friday morning were short on experience.
The Europeans then extended their lead by winning one of the afternoon fourballs and tying the other three to win the session 2.5 points to 1.5 points. They tied those
three matches by winning the 18 th hole on each occasion, two with birdies and one with an eagle.
Had they lost those matches, Europe’s lead would have been 5-3 rather than 6.5 to 1.5 and the story of this Ryder Cup might have been different.
Strangely, most of the United States team had not played competitive golf for a month prior to the Ryder Cup, so rust could have been a factor as well. The United States also approaches the Ryder Cup like it is a maths problem when it is actually a chemistry problem, especially when they are the away team.
Another one-sided victory for the home team
Europe’s five-point victory is the smallest margin of the last four Ryder Cups. Europe won by the same score in 2014 in Scotland. Then the U.S won 17-11 at Hazeltine in Minnesota in 2016. Europe delivered an even bigger victory in France in 2018, winning 17.5 to 10.5, before the U.S. delivered a thumping at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin in 2021 by winning 19-9.
In the 10 Ryder Cups before 2014, the margin out victory was three points or less in seven of them. Five of them produced a one-point difference, including in 2010 and 2012.
In fact, there hasn’t been a stretch like this since Europe was added to the Ryder Cup in 1979.
It appears that the home side now has a significant advantage, perhaps because ofthe partisan crowds that not only cheer vociferously for the home team, but taunt members of the opposing team. In other words, they are more like a football crowd than a traditional golf crowd, one that also happens to be much, much closer to the players.
It could also be that the home side is now doubly determined to win back the cup and regain some pride after being trounced so badly two years before. No wonder McIlroy said: “I think one of the biggest accomplishments in golf right now is winning an away Ryder Cup.”
Then he guaranteed a European victory in two years’ time in the United States at Bethpage Black in New York. Game on !! We will be there !
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Photo – CBS Sports