Europe romps to another session win in Ryder Cup for a commanding 5-point lead

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) — President Donald Trump did not attend Day 2 at the Ryder Cup. That was about the only difference Saturday as Europe sent out its same foursomes teams, filled the scoreboard with blue points and delivered a crushing blow to the Americans.

Rory McIlroy told the crowd to shut up — he used a few other words — for shouting before he could hit a shot. More powerful was his partnership with Tommy Fleetwood that produced seven birdies in another romp over Harris English and Collin Morikawa.

Jon Rahm improved to 6-0 in foursomes, teaming with Tyrrell Hatton again in a 3-and-2 victory over Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, the first loss of the week for either American.

“You need your superstars to perform at their highest, and they certainly have showed that so far,” European captain Luke Donald said of Rahm and McIlroy.

That wasn’t the case for the American superstar.

Scottie Scheffler made history of his own — the first No. 1 player in the world to lose his first three matches in the Ryder Cup. He had a chance to earn a halve in the anchor match, and instead delivered a clunker of a lob wedge and missed the green from 104 yards away.

“We battled hard out there,” Scheffler said. “The guys we played against just played great.”

That would be Team Europe, which won six of the eight foursomes matches and already was assured of having the lead going into Sunday, with still one more session to play Saturday. Europe had an 8 1/2-3 1/2 lead, not quite as large as in Rome two years ago, no taller a mountain to climb.

U.S. captain Keegan Bradley stuck to his script, which is turning into a horror story.

He walked alone up the 15th fairway, thousands of fans lining fairways, filling grandstands and on hillside in the arena of the four closing holes. It felt like a quiet stroll on a Saturday morning, except for the occasional New York-styled insults hurled at Europeans.

English and Morikawa have not played the 17th hole in two foursomes matches. They made five birdies of their own, but gave away two holes with bogeys at Nos. 7 and 8 that gave Europe a 4-up lead.

The bright spot for the Americans was Cameron Young, the New Yorker who won a state open and tied the course record at Bethpage Black as an amateur. He teamed with Justin Thomas for the most dominant result of the week Friday afternoon, and then played with Bryson DeChambeau in a 4-and-2 victory over Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Aberg.

Young was sent back out in the afternoon with Thomas again. Scheffler became the first player to start 0-3 in a Ryder Cup and get sent out again. The Americans had little choice. Scheffler is the best player in golf — at least over 72 holes on his own ball — and they were desperate for all the points they could get going into the 12 singles matches.

He played in the afternoon with DeChambeau, a tandem that went 1-0-1 in fourballs at Whistling Straits four years ago.

Scheffler and Russell Henley never led at any point, though the standard of golf was high. Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland had seven birdies in 14 holes in a tight match. Europe regained the lead when MacIntyre hit his tee shot to 5 feet on the par-3 14th for birdie.

They halved the rest of the holes with pars, though Scheffler didn’t give his side a chance to win the 18th with his wedge.

Hovland was scratched from the afternoon session with a neck injury, replaced by Hatton.

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AP Ryder Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/ryder-cup

Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press