5 hours ago
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It was carnage. It was bedlam. It was the Ryder Cup at its best and its worst and at the end of it all, there was a conclusion: not even the finest golfers in America nor the thickest, drunkest minds of the same nation could prevent Europe from kicking the living daylights out of this contest.
Where to start? That would be the abuse that swirled from the crowds and escalated into scenes of disgrace in this 45th edition of the match.
It was appalling at times, utterly electrifying at others, and the details are worth stressing for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to enhance an understanding of something else.
Because to appreciate the sheer brilliance of what Luke Donald’s side pulled off on this furious, frantic, fabulous Saturday in New York, and especially its beer-stained, angry afternoon, you ought to appreciate the environment in which Europe’s monstrously large 11.5-4.5 lead was achieved.
We should go back to the morning. To the tone setter. That was when Rory McIlroy, public enemy No 1, was greeted on the first tee of the foursomes by a chant of ‘f*** you, Rory’, and dropped an f-bomb of his own at the US fans 16 holes later.
But that was tame compared to what followed. That was borderline standard fodder for the Cup when it’s in the US, and was expected for an engagement billed as golf’s equivalent of Galatasaray away. Where it deviated to an altogether uglier place came from the vilest strands of personalised abuse aimed in the world No 2’s direction and it only got more depraved as the hours ticked on.
Rory McIlroy celebrates his Saturday win on a day like no other at the Ryder Cup
He was tormented to a sickening degree at Bethpage, but had the last laugh with Europe
The USA team are facing a massive humiliation after another day of misery in New York
His wife, Erica, was there for much of it, so may have even heard herself described as a ‘w****’, as per the claim of one greenside witness. She certainly will have heard the sustained, vivid innuendo directed at McIlroy about the state of their marriage. It was nasty and it stretched right through the day.
By the middle of the afternoon fourballs, there were police dogs by the greens. Police dogs! Fans were being ejected. A fan screamed ‘f*** you’ in Justin Rose’s face in one match, Shane Lowry shouted ‘f*** you’ towards a fan in another, pushed over the edge by torrents of abuse, and in a third Tommy Fleetwood got into a heated slanging match with Bryson DeChambeau. Fleetwood!
If we accept that hostility is essential to the Cup’s charm, that it exists as its greatest and most unique selling point, then we should also recognise that some lines of decency should not be crossed. Hundreds of those present stampeded across such a boundary here at Bethpage Black, home to the most rabid golfing gathering since Brookline in 1999.
But about Brookline. Europe led 10-6 after two days that year and lost; it would be the greatest choke of all if this one got away now, but who can possibly forecast that after four sessions in which Donald has orchestrated a massacre?
That brings us back to the sporting element at the heart of this extraordinary saga. To the remarkable theatre of a mauling, in a forum where not only does the home team always win, they win by landslides.
Well, on that front, the Europeans picked up where they left off by taking the morning foursomes 3-1 and they trounced the US 3-1 in the evening.
Through two days, Fleetwood has amassed a perfect record of four wins from four. McIlroy has dropped just half a point, and Rahm has been good for three. They were giants. Rose, too. He’s 45, his back needs ice every night, and he has won two from two. Tyrrell Hatton, somehow the calmest man in New York, has three, including one alongside Matt Fitzpatrick at the end of the craziest of sessions.
And what about those they are pulling apart?
McIlroy's wife Erica was watching on during a day where her husband was mercilessly taunted
The scoreboard made for awful reading for the USA team late on Saturday evening
They account for eight of the top 11 players in the world and Scheffler is the greatest of them all. He also has sustained the biggest hiding here, playing four and losing four, which hasn’t happened to anyone since 1979. Deary me.
He was beaten by the hot putters of Bob MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland in the morning, which was the latest instalment of a tortured partnership with Russell Henley, and then he and DeChambeau were blown away 3&2 by Fleetwood and Rose in the afternoon.
That was astonishing. The Europeans shot 11 birdies in the 16 holes it lasted, and incidentally that was the only match the US led in the session. Justin Thomas and Cameron Young managed to claw back a two-hole deficit on McIlroy and Lowry in the fourballs, but they too relented under the blue tidal wave, losing two down.
If it was possible to identify an emotional crescendo in one of the most fraught ties this stage has seen, it came at the 14th, with the scores level at the point McIlroy sank a 10-foot putt to go back in front. He screamed ‘f****** come on’ at the greenside mob, not dissimilar to his ‘I can’t hear you’ moment at Hazeltine in 2016, when away sides used to get butchered.
A word here on Thomas – his play was occasionally exceptional in that duel at the heart of the chaos but his behaviour was exasperating.
No American did more gesturing for calm from the lunatics surrounding those greens, which was so needed that the referee was called on the fifth, but he was the same guy who took every ear-cupping, arm-waving opportunity to rile up the hoards. At best he was seeking to be a solution to a problem he was actively encouraging.
Luke Donald and his European team are on the brink of an outstanding triumph
USA captain Keegan Bradley looked shellshocked after another day of disaster
Maybe there is a metaphor within that muddle for Keegan Bradley’s dire captaincy of Team USA. He has blundered through his stewardship of the team, a binary opposite to the diligence of Donald, and that was crystalised by one of his decisions for the alternate shot format that kicked off the day.
In redeploying the hapless duo of Harris English and Collin Morikawa for back-to-back foursomes drubbings by Fleetwood and McIlroy, Bradley performed something akin to our definitions of insanity. The 3&2 loss was as predictable as it was an inditement on the man who set it up.
Bradley’s only saving grace has been the two points from three outings by Young, which in turn raise the damning question of why he has not been selected for all four sessions.
Justin Thomas pictured appealing for the crowds to cool down during his round on Saturday
Beyond Young, there has been almost nothing for the Americans to celebrate. Not their performances, nor the behaviour of many of their fans.
It might have been even worse had JJ Spaun and Xander Schauffele not snatched a win on the final hole of their fourballs against Rahm and Sepp Straka after being two down at the turn.
That was a lift. The crumb of consolation upon which a captain might implore his side to believe there is potential in the 12 singles matches on a Cup Sunday. Alas, Hatton and Fitzpatrick beat Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay on the 18th.
The Europeans laughed their hats off. A truly wild day.
