{"id":45786,"date":"2025-09-27T01:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T01:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/45786\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T01:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T01:43:11","slug":"europe-silence-the-jingoistic-us-crowds-as-they-make-ideal-start-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/45786\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe silence the jingoistic US crowds as they make ideal start \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Things evolve, and the Ryder Cup<\/a> \u2013 in its 45th\u00a0iteration \u2013 showed us just how on a day like no other in its long history, as fighter jets flew the skies above Bethpage Black and the sound and sight of Air Force One signalled the arrival of US president Donald Trump<\/a> at a time when, on terra firma, the highly skilled golfers of Europe and the United States were involved in their own battle of wills and shotmaking.<\/p>\n

When the wildness of the first day finally settled, it was Europe \u2013 seeking a first win on US terrain since Medinah in 2012 \u2013 who held the advantage: a 3-1 foursomes session lead was extended by a fourballs mano o mano combat that resulted in a 2\u00bd to 1\u00bd win in the second session to give Luke Donald\u2019s men a 5\u00bd to 2\u00bd lead after the first day.<\/p>\n

For sure, jingoism has grown to be very much a part of the Ryder Cup in its biennial encounters, but never before on such a scale as this one here where, after an opening session of foursomes when Europe outsmarted and outplayed the United States, the president\u2019s arrival by the first tee for the afternoon fourballs stirred the senses of the home crowd in a time of need.<\/p>\n

Trump and his collegiate golfer granddaughter Kai arrived to a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, which had those in red, blue and white in the packed grandstands with hands on hearts, and he would even leave his position behind a protective screen to shake hands with Bryson DeChambeau and stand in proximity while the man he featured in a YouTube challenge with drove mightily off the first tee.<\/p>\n

US captain Keegan Bradley did his version of the Trump dance\u00a0down by the tee. So too did JJ Spaun.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ryder Cup live: Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy tie match as Europe take leadOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"USUS president Donald Trump fist bumps Bryson DeChambeau. Photograph: Richard Heathcote\/Getty <\/p>\n

His presence didn\u2019t prove too disruptive at all, though, with the European players wisely emerging from the tunnel \u2013 to choruses of boos, more often than not \u2013 and not engaging, focusing on their own challenges ahead of them on a course softened by the heavy rain through the week and with preferred lies in play on the fairways.<\/p>\n

Yet, the morning foursomes had featured a much quieter crowd than anticipated, perhaps the on-course displays of Luke Donald\u2019s European team \u2013 who claimed the foursomes 3-1 in continuing a dominance in that alternate shot format from Rome \u2013 doing more than anything to silence the home supporters who had arrived in the dark for the 5am gate admission.<\/p>\n

Europe dominated the foursomes: Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton \u2013 team-mates in LIV \u2013 lost the first hole to DeChambeau and Justin Thomas but tied the match at the seventh and flipped the match completely in adding a further four birdies to win by 4 and 3; Ludvig Aberg and Matthew Fitzpatrick\u2019s pairing may have raised eyebrows but Donald\u2019s decision was fully justified by a 5 and 3 win over Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley; and the third point was supplied quite brilliantly by Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood who defeated Collin Morikawa and Harris English by 5 and 4.<\/p>\n

The only respite for US captain Keegan Bradley came in the fourth foursomes match, where Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele finished strongly for a 2 up win over Bob MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland. \u201cWe saw a lot of blue on the board and we knew it was crucial to get a point, and it\u2019s nice to get one late going into fourball,\u201d admitted Schauffele.<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s dominance of the foursomes was reflected in numbers beyond the actual 3-1 scoreline. In the\u00a0four matches, just 62 holes were played: Europe won 22 of them, the US 10. And, for Rahm, extended his foursomes wins, dating back to a 100 per cent record in Rome, to five in emphasising the importance of the Spaniard\u2019s presence after the LIV player received a wildcard pick from Donald.<\/p>\n

\"TyrrellTyrrell Hatton of and Jon Rahm of Team Europe celebrate defeating Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas. Photograph: Carl Recine\/Getty <\/p>\n

And the Trump effect seemed to stir the crowds into a noisier atmosphere for the second session of fourballs, where Rahm \u2013 again \u2013 showed that the Ryder Cup runs in his DNA just as much as it did his famed predecessors as he followed in the footsteps of Seve Ballesteros and indeed Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal with energy-giving contributions.<\/p>\n

In the fourballs, a thrilling session where there was give and take and fightbacks, two of the matches went all the way to the 18th\u00a0where those packed into the grandstands hardly wanted it to end at all such was the drama on display.<\/p>\n

While Rahm and Sepp Straka won their match over Scheffler and JJ Spaun by 3 and 2 and, to cancel that, Americans Cameron Young \u2013 in an impressive debut \u2013 teamed up with Justin Thomas for a 6 and 5 win over Aberg and Rasmus Hojgaard, the two matches which went to the death provided additional European roars.<\/p>\n

Firstly, Justin Rose and Fleetwood came from one down at the turn to produce fireworks coming in for a 1 up win over DeChambeau and Ben Griffin.<\/p>\n

And, finally, a fourballs match that ebbed, flowed and where the Irish duo of McIlroy and Shane Lowry went to the wire with Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns only for the mutual handshakes between the four to recognised a halved match, the only one of the eight matches played.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great day for Europe. We would have absolutely taken this. The guys have done so well and it is about resting up and recovering,\u201d said McIlroy, who had a 15 footer for birdie on the last to win the hole and the match only for it to slip by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Things evolve, and the Ryder Cup \u2013 in its 45th\u00a0iteration \u2013 showed us just how on a day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,27768,27767,43,1394,10916,33774,1395,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-45786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-keegan-bradley","10":"tag-luke-donald","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-rory-mcilroy","13":"tag-ryder-cup","14":"tag-scottie-scheffler","15":"tag-shane-lowry","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}