After the Friday morning Foursomes session ended with three European points on the board, the afternoon Fourball session started out with President Donald Trump taking a seat behind the first tee. The Americans sent out three rookies to make their debut while Europe sent out their sole rookie, Rasmus Hojgaard, with Ludvig Aberg.
In the first match of the afternoon, Europe led off with Jon Rahm and Sepp Straka against the American team of major winners, Scottie Scheffler and J.J. Spaun. On his first hole in the Ryder Cup, Spaun made a birdie to go 1 UP. Straka chipped in for birdie on hole 2 to tie the match, and from there, it was all Team Europe. After the first 14 holes, Team Europe was 3 UP; the tide seemed to change as Scheffler made a birdie putt from over 20 feet to give the U.S. some momentum, but Rahm answered with a birdie putt of his own from 20 feet to maintain Europe’s 3 UP lead. Team Europe ultimately won another point in this first, winning 3&2.
Ben Griffin and Bryson DeChambeau (Team USA) went off in the second match against Europe’s Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose. The Americans took a 1 UP lead all the way to the 11th tee. Fleetwood birdied the 11th hole to tie the match and then made birdies on the 14th and 16th hole to go 2 UP with two holes to play. DeChambeau birdied the 17th hole to cut the lead to one going to the 18th tee. The teams halved the hole, giving the Europeans the win and their fifth point of the event.
The third match saw Justin Thomas and Cameron Young go against Aberg and Hojgaard. Thomas and Hojgaard traded birdies on the first hole, but then Young made a birdie on the second hole to go 1 UP. Both American players each made another birdie on the front nine to go up 3 UP. They then made three consecutive birdies on holes 11-13 to win 6&5 and give America their second point of the day.
The fourth match was the only one with no rookies in either group. Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry (Team Europe) went up against Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns (Team USA). On the first hole, Burns made a birdie to go 1 UP; Lowry responded with a birdie on the second hole to tie the match. McIlroy birdied the sixth and seventh hole to go 2 UP.
Cantlay then made a birdie on the 10th to cut the deficit only to see Lowry answer with his own birdie on the 11th hole. Cantlay then birdied the 12th and 13th hole to tie the match with five holes to play. McIlroy and Cantlay traded birdies on the 16th hole to stay all square with two holes to play. On the 17th hole, Burns and McIlroy both made birdies to send the match to the 18th hole still all square. Both teams made par and tied the match to earn a half point for their teams.
Team Europe will take a three-point lead over Team USA heading into Saturday morning’s session of Foursomes, 5.5-2.5.
