In an opening day of the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, the world number 1, Scottie Scheffler, did not show his best version. Scheffler, who hoped to dominate as he has on the PGA Tour and in the majors this year, did not achieve victories in either of the Friday sessions. His record in the event is 2-4-2, without winning a full point since 2021.
In the afternoon four-ball, Scheffler, playing with J.J. Spaun, did not show the same precision he usually has and seemed confused on the greens, missing several putts.When you’re number 1 in the world, you have a day that maybe wasn’t the best, you usually recover. We are not worried about Scottie Scheffler.
Keegan Bradley, captain of the American team
The most striking result was in the morning, where Scheffler and his partner Russell Henley lost 5 and 3 against Ludvig Åberg and Matt Fitzpatrick.We gave ourselves many opportunities. It really came down to not holing enough putts.
Scottie Scheffler
The putting issue was widely discussed among the American players who struggled on Friday. Bryson DeChambeau, who played with Justin Thomas in the morning and Ben Griffin in the afternoon, also lost both matches.We just didn’t make enough putts early. We had some opportunities. I think the putts just didn’t go in.
Scottie Scheffler
Captain Bradley mentioned several times the number of putts the Europeans holed. Despite inserting Cameron Young into the foursomes lineup instead of Thomas for Saturday, the other pairings that lost on Friday morning, including Collin Morikawa and Harris English (who fell 5 and 4 to Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood), will play again in the morning session.They holed everything. I felt like I was decisive when it was needed, but… there were so many putts that just didn’t go in for us and did for them. Luck is on their side right now.
Bryson DeChambeau
According to DataGolf, the Morikawa-English pairing is the worst potential combination of the 132 possible for any team, based on strokes gained.We are sticking to our plan. We are not going to panic and make those kinds of mistakes. We are going to stick to what we know.
Keegan Bradley, U.S. team captain
Bradley emphasized to his team after Friday that only 28% of the total points have been decided and that there is still a lot of golf to be played. This is the fourth-largest deficit the American team has faced on Day 1 of a home Ryder Cup.We came here this week with a plan, and the players are prepared for that plan. We looked at the data. We looked at the strokes gained. In the morning session, we just didn’t make any putts. Really, almost none at all. Everything else was pretty good.
Keegan Bradley, captain of the American team
Listen, we knew this was going to be difficult. We knew this was going to be hard. We didn’t expect to come here and that this wouldn’t be a difficult week… What a stage, what an opportunity they have to go out tomorrow and show everyone that they’re now down, now they have to catch up. I like that.
Keegan Bradley, captain of the American team
