Day two action at Whistling Straits – Maddie Myer PGA of America
The European Ryder Cup side faces a massive task if it is to retain the Ryder Cup it won in Paris three years ago after sharing fourball honours on Saturday afternoon at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
Now trailing by a huge six point margin, they will need to win 9 of the 12 singles match-ups tomorrow if they are to force the draw and take the Cup back to Europe.
The largest previous margin overcome to win when heading into the singles was in 2012 when the Europeans chased down the Americans at Medinah after trailing 10-6 heading into the singles match-ups, winning eight of the 12 final day encounters.
The US side need only to win 3.5 points of the 12 available on day three to secure the 14.5 points they need to regain the Cup and win for just the third occasion in the last ten encounters.
After trailing by 6 – 2 after the opening day, only Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm were able to put their finger in the dyke for the Europeans when winning their foursomes encounter over Brooke Koepka on Saturday morning but the margin had still increased to 9-3 ahead of the afternoon fourball matches.
Saturday afternoon offered a ray of hope for the Europeans as at one stage they were ahead in three matches and perhaps capable of closing the gap to at least a manageable position by day’s end.
It was not to be however as the Americans recovered to win 2 of the four matches and retain their six shot margin, a gap that has never been bridged in the history of the event.
The lead is the largest the Americans have ever held against Europe and the largest they have held since 1975 when just Great Britain and Ireland were the opposition.
Europe also held a similar lead in 2004 at Oakland Hills heading into the singles before going on to win 18.5 to 9.5.
Jon Rahm has been the European star winning three matches and halving one, three of those with his fellow countryman Sergio Garcia, the half coming when teamed with Tyrrell Hatton.
There are plenty of stars for the USA although Dustin Johnson perhaps stands out, winning all four of his matches, three of those when combined with Collin Morikawa.
Tomorrow’s singles have been announced and despite the apparently hopeless task facing the Europeans there will be still a lot of interest in just what the winning margin might be and whether the Europeans can save some face at least.
One of the tightest battles on Saturday afternoon saw a Victor Hovland and Shane Lowry win.
