Europe rides its best to another commanding Ryder Cup lead. US stars get blanked

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) — Europe's best showed Friday that points, not panache, is what matters in the Ryder Cup.

Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood helped Team Europe silence the crowd at Bethpage Black and reminded the Americans that playing at home won't make it any easier to get their hands on that 17-inch gold trophy.

The Europeans won both sessions — before and after President Donald Trump was there — and had a 5 1/2 to 2 1/2 lead going into Saturday.

“It's a great day for Europe,” McIlroy said. “We would have absolutely taken this.”

The two biggest American stars, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau, lost both their matches. Scheffler didn't reach the 17th hole in either of his losses.

Scheffler became the first No. 1 player since Tiger Woods in 2002 at The Belfry to lose both his matches on opening day of the Ryder Cup.

And the Americans were lucky the deficit wasn't slightly worse. McIlroy had a 12-foot birdie putt, the final shot of a long day, that broke just left of the cup as he and Shane Lowry settled for a halve with Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns.

Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to attend the Ryder Cup. He was behind protective glass at first, then walked to the first tee for the afternoon session with DeChambeau. He left a little earlier than planned, perhaps not liking what he saw.

U.S. captain Keegan Bradley was on the first see some 90 minutes before the matches even got started, trying to rile up the crowd — the massive grandstand surrounding the first tee and 18th green was full in the darkness — for a loud and noisy opening session. He grabbed a microphone and said to the crowd, "Let’s (expletive) go, boys!”

Bradley also sent out DeChambeau in the opening session, the two-time major champion and entertainer who had said this summer he wanted to bring energy and a “tsunami” of a crowd.

He pulled out driver and ripped it 344 yards over the trees, leading to a birdie and the first red score on the board for the Americans. He wanted to deliver a clear message.

And then the Europeans delivered blue points, filling the board with three blowouts for a 3-1 lead in foursomes, and then two more wins and the halve in the afternoon.

“The morning, although it was great, it was just one part of a long race,” Rahm said. “We started great and we have to keep it going. That's what we did.”

Rahm went 2-0, with Tyrrell Hatton in foursomes and Sepp Straka in fourballs, and his putting was sublime. In the fourballs match, he made five birdies of at least 9 feet, none bigger than his 20-footer on the 15th on top of Scheffler's 25-foot birdie that appeared — briefly — to give the Americans some hope.

The Spaniard is now unbeaten in 11 of his last 12 matches in the Ryder Cup, a streak that began with his singles win over Woods in Paris in 2018.

Fleetwood, coming off his first win on U.S. soil to capture the FedEx Cup at the Tour Championship, partnered with McIlroy in the morning and one of his English heroes, Justin Rose, in the afternoon.

It was Fleetwood's 18-foot birdie putt on the 16th in the afternoon — which DeChambeau failed to match — that paved the way for another European point.

“The scoreboard is what counts,” Fleetwood said. “We obviously feel very prepared, and we’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time now. So to have got off to a good start feels great. Their team is stacked with amazing players, so whoever it is, the match going to be difficult, and the points mean so much.”

The crowd felt like it belonged at a New York Yankees game, making the occasional insult but rarely a lasting wave of noise because the Americans gave them so little to cheer. McIlroy and Robert MacIntyre had to back off shots when someone from the gallery yelled as they stood over the ball.

Someone yelled, “Fore, right!” just as Rahm was to take the club away on his first shot.

Europe played through the heckling, match by match building a lead that surely got the Americans' attention going into another day of eight team matches.

There were a few bright spots for the Americans. Patrick Cantlay helped avoid a shutout in the opening session when he partnered with new father Xander Schauffele for a 2-up win in foursomes. And he nearly carried Sam Burns to victory in the final match, settling for a halve.

Cameron Young, who won a New York State Open at Bethpage Black when he was in college, returned home to his native state and hammered his way with Justin Thomas to the shortest match of the day, a 6-and-5 fourballs win.

But it's still a three-point deficit to a European team that looks strong as ever.

“We’ve only played 28% of the points,” Bradley said. “This is first quarter. We’ve still got three quarters to go. I’ve got a lot of faith in my boys.”

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