FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – The opening day of the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black presented an unexpected side of the world number one. Scottie Scheffler, who came to the event with the expectation of dominating, as he has done on the PGA Tour and in the majors this year, failed to score victories in either of the two Friday sessions. His record in the competition is 2-4-3, and he has not won a full point since 2021.
In the afternoon four-ball session, Scheffler, playing with J.J. Spaun, did not show the usual precision from tee to green, and seemed confused on several occasions on the greens, missing numerous putts.When you’re number one in the world and you have a day that maybe wasn’t the best, you usually bounce back. We’re not worried about Scottie Scheffler.
Keegan Bradley, U.S. team captain
The most notable result occurred in the morning, where Scheffler and his foursomes partner, Russell Henley, lost 5 and 3 against Ludvig Åberg and Matt Fitzpatrick. Bryson DeChambeau, who played with Justin Thomas in the morning foursomes and with Ben Griffin in the afternoon, also lost both matches.We gave ourselves many opportunities. Really, it all came down to not holing enough putts.
Scottie Scheffler
Captain Bradley highlighted on several occasions the number of putts holed by the Europeans. Despite replacing Thomas with Cameron Young in Saturday’s foursomes lineup, the other pairs that lost on Friday morning, including Collin Morikawa and Harris English, will play again in the morning session.They holed everything. I felt like I was up to the task when needed, but… There were so many putts that 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 of the teams, based on strokes gained. Bradley emphasized that only 28% of the total points have been decided and that there is still a lot of golf to play. This is the fourth-largest deficit that the US team has faced on the first day of a home Ryder Cup. Of the three previous occasions, only one resulted in a victory for the American team: 1999 in Brookline.We are sticking to our plan. We are not going to panic and make those kinds of mistakes. We will stick to what we know.
Keegan Bradley
We knew this was going to be difficult. We didn’t expect this week not to be difficult. 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
