Where the Ryder Cup was won and lost

Justin Thomas (4-1-0), the best American player, had played the French Open this year; Koepka had played it during a stint in Europe early in his career.

“The spectator hit by a ball at the sixth hole during Friday’s play was treated by first responders immediately and taken to hospital”.

“I played seven out of nine weeks because I qualified for [the WGC event in] Akron, and all of those are big events, starting with the Open Championship, you’ve got the World Golf Championships, you’ve got another major championship, you’ve got the [FedEx] playoffs and then you have the Ryder Cup on the back side”. Not surprisingly, Europe won the session 4-0, taking a lead that that they would never relinquish.

“For somebody as successful in the Ryder Cup as I am, I don’t think it’s smart to sit me twice”, Reed said.

From whatever angle you look at this, it doesn’t look good for the US. There’s nothing else you can say. Since the competition became a Europe-U.S. thing in 1979, the Europeans have accumulated 286.5 points to 273.5 for the Americans and own a team record of 11-8-1. All 12 of his players played very well. He halved his singles match with Tiger Woods at Medinah to ensure Europe didn’t just retain the cup but won it outright, yet he didn’t feel he really contributed. “Blindsided, my ass. He begged to play with Tiger”. He paired nicely with Spieth, meaning that the Spieth-Patrick Reed pairing is definitely over. So did Mickelson. So did No. 1-ranked Dustin Johnson. Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau, though rookies, were proven winners. Team USA does not take losing the Ryder Cup well.

No doubt when the United States win at Whistling Straits – home advantage means everything at Ryder Cups now – we’ll get it all again. The crowd have just been incredible all week. “We were all coming here on a high and excited about playing this week but we didn’t execute like we had planned and wanted to”.

There were countless moments that induced booming cheers around the course as the world’s best battled for one of the sport’s most coveted trophies.

For this year’s edition, Bjorn and Co. exploited a considerable home-course advantage. I mean, he put a lot of work and effort into it and played a lot more golf than he’s used to. But in my head, I had to go with what was right for the team. We just didn’t execute… Woods on Sunday also ran into a spirited Rahm, who birdied the first hole and never looked back.

The Europeans extended their cushion to four points by the end of the second day, as Bjorn’s decisions continued to pay dividends. “If you had tried that in 2002, the nutritionist wouldn’t have got far”, said the captain with a smile.Bjørn is perfectly happy to admit a 17.5 to 10.5 thumping by Europe was beyond his wildest dreams.

Webb Simpson followed with an eight-foot birdie putt to finish off Justin Rose 3 and 2 and United States rookie Tony Finau closed with five birdies in his last eight holes in a 6 and 4 rout of England’s Tommy Fleetwood to lift the Americans within 10½-9½. They are what makes the @RyderCup.so special…

‘I think it might be a couple of months before I’m able to think about that, ‘ said Bjorn, smiling.

Johnson and Koepka ended up playing together in the Saturday afternoon foursomes, but they apparently had not smoothed things over at that point. In each of those miracle matches the eventual victor got off to a blazing-fast start, winning at least the first five matches, and sure enough there was about a half-hour period Sunday when the Americans were in position to claim the first six matches.