For Matt Fitzpatrick, this is personal. The English player was derided a great deal for not winning on the USPGA Tour in the early part of his career until he answered his detractors by taking the biggest prize of all — the 2022 US Open. And even though he continued to smile through the final round of that Major, you could tell the heckling was getting under his skin: American golf fans aren’t what you’d call genteel. Fitzpatrick kept his composure and registered a very classy win with that unforgettable approach bunker shot on the 72nd hole to win by one over Will Zalatoris.
Cut to one year later, and Fitzpatrick is paired with Rory McIlroy against the American team of Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffeule in the opening four-ball match of the 2023 Ryder Cup at the Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome. Gone was the trademark inscrutable smile: Fitzpatrick went berserk, picking up six shots in the first six holes, punctuating each win with an emphatic fist pump and a high five for his partner, who could just shake his head and smile in disbelief. When all that the second-ranked player in the world can do is shake his head in disbelief at his partner’s play, then you know you’re watching something special.
By the looks of it — and this column is being written just as the first match of the second day’s afternoon groups has teed off — Europe has steamrolled over a stunned American squad — to make the final day’s singles matches on Sunday of little consequence. As I write, the Europeans lead 9.5 points to 2.5 points: the exact cumulative score they managed in the last edition of the biennial event in 2021. Fans will remember that the drubbing the Europeans received that year — losing 19.5 points to 9.5 points — was the most comprehensive defeat suffered by either side in the history of the event. By the looks of it, they’re poised not just to wipe that ignominy from the record books but inflict an even bigger defeat on the Americans this time around.
European Ryder Cup team captain Luke Donald’s decision to pick Ludvig Aberg — the young Swede who won the Omega European Masters — appears to have paid off. No one watching this self-assured youngster — who paired with FedEx winner Viktor Hovland take down the pairing of world number one Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns on the first day — would believe that Aberg was an amateur three months back. For the record, Aberg has made the quickest transition from an amateur to the Ryder Cup, breaking Sergio Garcia’s record from 1999.
Aberg’s record was beyond exceptional before he was even picked for the Ryder Cup. But watching him handle this kind of pressure and perform under duress of the highest degree is gobsmacking. It’s not hyperbole to say that this young man is almost certain to be the best player in the world in the future. And what can one say about Hovland. McIlroy is widely considered the best driver of the golf ball, but Hovland, with his slightly unorthodox swing, is fast becoming the man to beat, not just when it comes to distance but his creativity and shotmaking off the tee.
It’s not good for television viewership; a one-sided contest. It would have been unthinkable that your columnist would skip watching the morning games of the second day’s play of the Ryder Cup to get a game of his own. But that’s precisely what happened. I’ll spare the details: suffice to say the day’s play was more reminiscent of the Americans than the Europeans. My playing partner went as far as to say that he felt bad for the US squad. That’s such a telling statement, I thought. The Americans — never shy to show their emotions — are typically aggressive in their play and demeanour. Their brand of step-on-the-jugular display of triumph is more akin to American contact sports like basketball and baseball. Not judging it — that’s the sporting culture in America, and golf is no different.
Given that it’s not easy to feel bad for them when things aren’t going their way. So, when Brooks Koepka whined about Jon Rahm’s expressive displays of emotions after the Spaniard dramatically holed out on the final green to salvage half a point in the match between Rahm and Nicolai Højgaard versus Koepka and Scottie Scheffler, then it did seem like the American Major winner was being a bit of a piquant loser. That match sealed 6.5 points for the Europeans on the first day. It was also the first day the US failed to win a single match in a day in Ryder Cup history. Deserved a celebration if you ask me.
As you read this, the final day’s singles will be about to get underway. Now there’s no guarantee of anything — the Ryder itself has thrown up plenty of surprising turnarounds in the past — but looking at how shell-shocked the Americans look right now, it would take nothing short of a miracle for them to pull even with the Continentals. On second thoughts, not even a miracle will work — this is a done deal. The Europeans haven’t lost a Ryder Cup at home since 1993 — that’s unlikely to change this time either.