Ryder Cup Day 2

Ryder Cup 2021 Day 2
September 24-26
Whistling Straits, Sheboygan, WI
Day 1, Day 3

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The USA started with a four point advantage on Saturday morning and quickly started building it up, winning three of the four morning matches.

Ryder Cup 2021 Day 2

Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa continued their unbeaten streak winning the first three holes. Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton attempted a comeback winning the 11th, 13th and 14th but couldn’t sustain the attempt and lost 2 & 1.

Viktor Hovland and Bernd Wiesberger were 3-up after six holes but Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth won three holes around the turn and took the lead with a par at the 15th. Wiesberger’s approach at 18 sealed the deal when it found the water and the US finished 2up.

Ryder Cup 2021 Day 2

Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele remained undefeated winning their match agains Matt Fitzpatrick and Lee Westwood 5 & 3.

Once again the only ray of hope for Europe was the Spanish pair. Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia didn’t start well against Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger, losing the first three holes, but they recovered and were leading by the 12th. The Americans conceded eagle at the 16th giving Europe their only morning win.

“We are not giving up,” said Garcia. “We’re going to fight until the end as hard as we can. Hopefully we have a good afternoon this afternoon and see what happens.”

Ryder Cup 2021 Day 2

Rahm and Garcia were back in the first match of the afternoon session playing against Koepka and Spieth and scored another win for Europe. They have now won all three of their matches as a pair.

Shane Lowry made a great start in his afternoon match with Hatton making five birdies in the first ten holes. Hatton added two more for a 2-up lead by the 11th. They only won two holes but it was sufficient to defeat Tony Finau and Harris English 1-up.

“I felt like it was a great opportunity to do something,” said Lowry. “When you’re in a great frame of mind, that’s the stuff you think about when you’re over putts like that. It was great fun.”

Ryder Cup 2021 Day 2

Johnson and Morikawa continued their winning streak against Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy winning 4 & 3. Johnson is the first American to win in each of the four sessions since Larry Nelson in 1979.

He and Morikawa are only the fourth American pairing to earn three points in a single Ryder Cup in the last 40 year following Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus (1981), Keegan Bradley and Phil Mickelson (2012) and Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas (2018).

“Disappointing not to contribute a point for the team yet,” said McIlroy. “So hopefully just go out tomorrow and try my best to get a point, and hopefully we can rally and at last give them something to maybe sweat about tomorrow in the middle of the afternoon.”

Ryder Cup 2021 Day 2

Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler were 1-down through 13 but managed to rally and won three consecutive holes beating Tommy Fleetwood and Hovland 3 & 1.

“Bryson flipped the match twice today,” said Scheffler, “he made a great putt on and 8. They won 9, and I had a great chip on 10, and Bryson rolled in a putt before Viktor could make his and just a massive putt on 14.”

This final win for the day to reach 11-5 was all the more important for the USA since coming back from a 10-6 deficit has been done, by Europe at Medinah in 2012 and by the US at Brookline in 1999.

“We learned a lot of lessons from 2012,” said USA captain Steve Stricker, who was on the U.S team at Medinah. “Probably the thing I can say is that we didn’t do a good job putting our lineup out on Sunday. Not that we took it for granted by any stretch of the imagination, but we just could have done better with it.

“And that was on our mind here today. We think about our past mistakes, and we are trying to learn from them and see what we can do to try and improve on them, and that was definitely one of the things that we were talking about up there tonight.”

Ryder Cup 2021 Day 2

The last time the U.S. team led by six or more points was in 1975 when they beat GB&I 21-11 having reached the Singles 12½-3½.

“They have to just go out there and win their own individual match. There’s nothing more they can do than that,” said European captain Padraig Harrington. “They have to focus on that and not look at that bigger picture and focus on their individual self and play their game and win that and then just see how it adds up.”

Ryder Cup 2021 Day 2

USA 11		Vs.		Europe 5
Saturday Afternoon Four-Ball
Brooks Koepka / Jordan Spieth		2&1	<	Jon Rahm / Sergio Garcia
Tony Finau / Harris English		1 Up	<	Shane Lowry / Tyrrell Hatton
Scottie Scheffler / Bryson DeChambeau	>	3&1		Tommy Fleetwood / Viktor Hovland
Dustin Johnson / Collin Morikawa	>	4&3		Ian Poulter / Rory McIlroy
Saturday Morning Foursomes
Brooks Koepka / Daniel Berger		3&1	<	Jon Rahm / Sergio Garcia
Dustin Johnson / Collin Morikawa	>	2&1		Paul Casey / Tyrrell Hatton
Justin Thomas / Jordan Spieth	>	2 Up		Viktor Hovland / Bernd Wiesberger
Xander Schauffele / Patrick Cantlay	>	2&1		Lee Westwood / Matt Fitzpatrick