![\"GOLF](\"\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/493af0e651d0a13c472403ac505603bbY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjk2MDcwNjkw\/2.73936719.jpg?w=640\")
<\/p>\n
That led to a conceded eagle and the out-of-sorts American pair were soon put of their misery on the 15th.<\/p>\n
\u201cExtremely satisfying,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cI had a good feeling about Tyrrell all along. It was good to come out here and see him perform the way he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an incredible foursome match and we played as confident as two people could play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lowry admitted he was \u201closing my mind\u201d standing on the first tee as he watched Hovland chip in for birdie up ahead on the green, but the former Open champion regained his composure in time to help rookie Straka earn a debut point.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u201d Lowry said. \u201cObviously it\u2019s early days but I wanted to give Sepp his moment in the Ryder Cup to hole the winning putt (on 17). We are off to a great start this morning. We need to keep the foot down.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI would have liked to close out the match earlier because we had good chances, but it was nice to put a point on the board for Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n A miserable morning for Zach Johnson\u2019s side was epitomised in the bottom match, where Schauffele and Cantlay \u2013 who had boasted a 5-0 record in foursomes \u2013 won the 14th to halve their deficit and looked almost certain to get back to all square on the next following a wayward McIlroy drive.<\/p>\n However, Cantlay charged his birdie putt four feet past, Fleetwood holed from 20 feet to scramble a par and Schauffele then missed his par attempt.<\/p>\n The American duo did win the 16th with a birdie but McIlroy hit a superb tee shot to within three feet on the 17th and Schauffele, knowing he had to make his birdie attempt from 20 feet to have any chance, inexplicably left it short.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fleetwood was left with the simple task of tapping in to complete a 2&1 victory and round off a barely-believable opening session for the European team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been an unbelievable session,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cWe switched the format this year to go foursomes first because statistically that\u2019s our better session.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd all week all we\u2019ve been talking about is getting off to fast starts. Playing three-hole matches in practise, three holes, go again, three holes, go again, something that Luke\u2019s drilled into us.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were ready to go from the first tee shot as obviously as you can see in how everyone played.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fitzpatrick had failed to win a point in five matches across his previous two Ryder Cups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1247345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9776],"tags":[1890,1473,9051,3435,146,1102],"class_list":["post-1247344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ryder-cup","tag-marco-simone","tag-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-pa-news","tag-rome","tag-ryder-cup","tag-team-event","priority_tax-homepage-slider"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Viktor](\"\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/293f16677cc5f321d3a5f11058af03ffY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjk2MDY5OTk5\/2.73936053.jpg?w=640\")
![\"Tommy](\"\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/89a0ac9b68f2921922adfb1e8c11b10cY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjk2MDY5OTEw\/2.73936402.jpg?w=640\")