Ryder Cup on day one: Team USA dominates despite the Garcia record

Ryder Cup clearly on day one
Team USA dominates despite the Garcia record

Sergio Garcia is already completing his tenth Ryder Cup, and the Spanish golf professional has set a new record. Nevertheless, his team in Europe is clearly behind, the men from the USA prove their class on day one. One of them also sets the beat of the day.

The golf stars from the USA lived up to their role as favorites at the start of the 43rd Ryder Cup and clearly dominated the opening day against the defending champions from Europe. After the first eight team duels in matchmaking, the hosts were 6-2 points ahead in the prestigious continental comparison on the Whistling Straits Golf Course in the US state of Wisconsin on Friday.

US captain Steve Stricker was very pleased with the performance of his players: “It’s a great start. But my message to the guys is, tomorrow is a new day. Let’s just go out there and try to win the morning matches and stuff.” to pretend that never happened today. “

The Europeans have to start a race to catch up in the other eight team duels on the second day in order not to be hopelessly behind even before the decisive twelve individual matches on Sunday. “It’s been a tough day, no doubt,” said Captain Padraig Harrington. “Sure, it’s not what we wanted. It’s not a good start, but there is still a lot of golf to be played. There are still 20 points left.”

Garcia improves his own record

At 7:10 a.m. (local time) the Ryder Cup began in bright sunshine on the spectacular golf course on the shores of Lake Michigan to the cheers of thousands of spectators. The atmosphere on the huge grandstand at the first tee was like in a football stadium. “USA, USA, USA”, the US fans chanted.

The Europeans got the first point of the day. The Spanish duo Jon Rahm / Sergio Garcia defeated Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. With the success, Garcia improved his own record to 26.5 points in his tenth Ryder Cup start. No other player has scored more points in the history of the event.

The three other morning matches were decided by the Americans 3: 1 in the meantime. Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa defeated Paul Casey (England) and Viktor Hovland (Norway). Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger won against the two Englishmen Lee Westwood and Matt Fitzpatrick. The clearest success was celebrated by Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele against Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) and Ian Poulter (England).

US muscleman sets punch of the day

DeChambeau stands out.

(Photo: AP)

Also in the four afternoon duels, the US stars turned up mightily under the eyes of US basketball legend Michael Jordan. Johnson / Schauffele gave Casey and Bernd Wiesberger (Austria) no chance. Tony Finau and Harris English prevailed against McIlroy and Shane Lowry (Ireland). The match between Bryson DeChambeau / Scottie Scheffler and Rahm / Tyrrell Hatton (England) ended in a draw. The point was also shared in the duel between Thomas / Cantlay and Hovland / Tommy Fleetwood (England).

The stroke of the day came from US muscleman DeChambeau, who thundered his tee shot on the fifth fairway – a 530 meter long par 5 – an unbelievable 381 meters down the fairway. In the end, the 28-year-old punched his ball with three hits to the Eagle and thus won the hole.

Three years ago in Paris, the Europeans had recaptured the Ryder Cup from the Americans with a clear 17.5: 10.5 success. The Ryder Cup, originally planned for 2020, had been postponed for a year due to the corona pandemic.

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