It all came down to Rory McIlroy because, well, of course it did.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The polarizing golfer, ranked No. 2 in the world, further entrenched himself as the villain of this road Ryder Cup for Team Europe when he predicted a win at Bethpage as soon as Rome ended. He embraced that role during Friday\u2019s sessions, as fist pumps blended with roars on some holes before eventually boiling over when he flipped off fans at the 11th hole during four-ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And for the most part, McIlroy delivered. He won a third consecutive match with Tommy Fleetwood in foursomes dating back to 2023. But on the final putt of the final match of the afternoon, McIlroy missed a birdie that would\u2019ve won it for Europe, flipped his club into the air and settled for a tie as the Europeans took a 5 \u00bd-2 \u00bd lead into Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s made it quite clear that one of his big goals was to win an away Ryder Cup again,\u201d European captain Luke Donald said. \u201c\u2026 He played fantastic golf today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Tommy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2237515569.jpg\")
Tommy Fleetwood fist bumps teammate Rory McIlroy of Team Europe on the first green during the Friday morning foursomes matches of the 2025 Ryder Cup at Black Course at Bethpage State Park Golf Course on September 26, 2025 in Farmingdale, New York. Getty Images<\/p>\n
This was vintage McIlroy. There was still plenty of emotion present at the start of his eighth Ryder Cup. There was still plenty of skill, too. And moving to 6-1-0 across his last seven Ryder Cup matches turned this into the best stretch of his career, according to Elias Sports Bureau \u2014 directly following five consecutive losses from 2018-21.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McIlroy looked forward to reuniting with Fleetwood since their final putt in Rome, he said. The pairing allows him to play with freedom. To trust his own shots and his own strategy because he knows Fleetwood can back him up. And they needed just 14 holes to dispose of Collin Morikawa and Harris English in a 5 & 4 win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can play a little tentative with the way the format is,\u201d McIlroy said after the morning session, \u201cbut again, knowing I have this man beside me to bail me out if I do hit a bad shot, that\u2019s very comforting to know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Still, moments materialized on the back nine of his four-ball match that rendered some of his earlier play for naught. McIlroy and Shane Lowry were 2-up with seven holes to play, but at the 13th McIlroy\u2019s putt spun around the cup before settling on the green \u2014 allowing Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay to even their match. His final putt four holes later veered left.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2237609738.jpg\")
Rory McIlroy of Team Europe reacts after making a birdie on the 16th hole during the Friday afternoon four-ball matches of the 2025 Ryder Cup at Black Course at Bethpage State Park Golf Course on September 26, 2025 in Farmingdale, New York. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously right now, disappointed I didn\u2019t hole out for a full point,\u201d McIlroy said following the afternoon session.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But on a day when Team USA star Scottie Scheffler struggled, McIlroy rose to the occasion. He thrived in the spotlight. Until Europe pulls away and quashes any attempt of an American comeback, though, the lost half-point \u2014 and the two misses that directly led to that result \u2014 will linger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It all came down to Rory McIlroy because, well, of course it did.\u00a0 The polarizing golfer, ranked No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[63795,49,48,622,1976,13261,82],"class_list":["post-173001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-bethpage-black","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-ryder-cup","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}