Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth have disappointing finish as U.S. leads by one
CHASKA, Minn. — On a magical sun-splashed Saturday morning at the pleasant setting of Hazeltine National, madness broke out.
Eardrums were pounding and blood vessels popping as one brilliant shot after another ignited thunderous roars from the players inside the ropes and the massive galleries outside the ropes as the Ryder Cup woke to its second day.
From the brilliance of Rory McIlroy and Thomas Pieters in the first match to the full-throttle celebrations of Brandt Snedeker in the second match to the thrilling duel between Jordan Spieth/Patrick Reed and Sergio Garcia/Rafa Cabrera Bello, this 41st edition of the biennial match-play tussle kicked it up a notch.
And when all the fireworks tailed off, Europe cut into the U.S. lead. After being whitewashed in the opening session Friday, Europe won three of the four matches Friday afternoon and took home 2½ points Saturday morning to cut the U.S. lead to 6½-5½.
Garcia and Bello dampened the USA's hopes by winning four of the last six holes to snare a half-point. The match ended on the 18th green where Garcia and Reed made pressure-packed par putts to save a half.
“It's the hardest thing we have to deal with this week, not getting too over-amped and not getting too excited,” Snedeker said after he and Brooks Koepka defeated Henrik Stenson and rookie Matthew Fitzpatrick, 3 and 2. “But we did a great job of staying patient today. It was not pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but we found a way to win. That's all you've got to do.
“You never know how it's going to look.”
It didn’t look good very often as the two only hit four fairways, but when they needed a putt or a big approach, they delivered.
“Fairways are overrated,” Koepka said with a smile. “Just grinded it out. We have a lot of grit. … It’s easy (to be a good team) when you've got somebody who putts it as good as Brandt does.”
McIlroy, who ended the first day with an eagle to win his fourballs match with Pieters and then bowed twice to the fans, earned another bow as he and Pieters toppled Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler in the opener, 4 and 2. Pieters deserved a bow, as well, especially on the seventh hole when he was heckled by a fan as he readied to putt. Pieters drilled his birdie putt to halve the hole and hold the momentum, to which McIlroy stared down into the direction of the heckler and roared.
The two made six birdies and never trailed.
“To go out first, put a point on the board for Team Europe, that's what we wanted to do,” McIlroy said. “We wanted to start the session off in the right vein. The crowds … You just need to try to quiet them as much as possible and we felt like once we got up on the front nine, they weren't as vocal and they weren't as behind the players. That's what you have to do. I think one of the biggest things for us is get off to good starts and don't let them get any momentum.”
Europe’s Justin Rose and rookie Chris Wood never trailed in the third match and defeated Jimmy Walker and Zach Johnson.
And in the anchor match, Reed and Spieth dominated the first 12 holes, holing putts and hitting shots close throughout to get 4 up. But an errant tee shot on the 13th by Reed and another on the 15th gave openings to Garcia and Bello, and the two Spaniards cashed in.
Bello squared the match on the 17th by making a 10-footer for birdie from off the green. Spieth had just missed a birdie putt by a whisker.
“We haven't had a problem before,” Spieth said about closing out the match. “We just hit a few sloppy shots. I made a bad decision there on 15 trying to hit the hero shot instead of laying back and very well could have made par and won the match. So we played a fantastic round. We were something like 6-under through 12 holes in alternate shot on this course, which is a ridiculous number. And they played great. The way we played wins most matches and they stayed steady with it and hit the shots they needed to coming down the stretch. Big putt by Patrick (on 18) to salvage half a point, although still disappointing for us.”
Expect fireworks in the afternoon, too.
Koepka and Dustin Johnson, who sat in the mornings, will meet McIlroy and Pieters in the first fourballs match. J.B. Holmes and Ryan Moore, who were defeated in Friday fourballs, face Danny Willett and Lee Westwood.
In the third match, Mickelson goes out with Matt Kuchar, who sat in the morning, against Garcia and Martin Kaymer, who also sat in the morning. The anchor match pits Reed and Spieth against Rose and Stenson. The two teams split their matches Friday.
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