Friday's Fourball Matches:
1) Bubba Watson/Webb Simpson VS Justin Rose/Henrik Stenson > EUROPE 5&4
2) Rickie Fowler/Jimmy Walker VS Thomas Bjorn/Martin Kaymer > HALVED
3) Jordan Speith/Patrick Reed VS Stephen Gallacher/Ian Poulter > US 5&4
4) Keegen Bradley/Phil Mickelson VS Rory McIlroy/Sergio Garcia
The opening match between Watson/Simpson and Rose/Stenson officially kicked off the Ryder Cup. However, the Europeans played better than their US counterparts the entire match. Both Watson and Simpson failed to make a single birdie and as a result, the match was mostly dominated by Rose and Stenson, who were in the lead from the second hole onwards. The match ended after the 14th hole, at which point the Europeans went 5UP, thus securing their lead and the first point for Europe. The second match featured Fowler/Walker vs Bjorn and was a very good match with good golf played on both sides (both Bjorn and Walker made excellent chips to secure points for their team). However, a last minute rally from a 2UP deficit by Walker and Fowler payed off and as a result the match was halved.
The third match was between Speith/Reed and Poulter/Gallacher and was a major upset on Europe's part. To set the stage, we have two American Ryder Cup rookies going up against Ryder Cup royalty (Poulter) and the hometown hero (Gallacher). Surely this would be an easy point for Europe, but things did not turn out that way. The rookies dominated the entire match right from the start, winning by 5&4m and at one point were 6Up. Speith and Reed played excellent golf and were deserving of the win, especially considering that they were heavily favoured to lose the match. In fact, Europe's only won hole in this group was by Gallacher, with a poorly playing Poulter contributing no won holes. It's safe to say we were all shocked by this today as this was one of Poulter's biggest defeats in the Ryder Cup. Putting the rookies up against them was a brave move by US Captain Tom Watson but payed off greatly. The last match of the day was probably one of the most looked forward to match of the day, Mickelson/Bradley vs Garcia/McIlroy. Again, there was great golf played by both sides, but the US ended up winning this match by 1UP, after another late rally by the US from all square. It should be mentioned though that the score was back and fourth all throughout the match. Mickelson proved he's still as fierce as ever, nearly holing out a bunker shot that would of won the hole for them.
Shortly before the end of the morning matches, the afternoon foursome matches were announced. In foursome or alternate shot format, players on a team take turns hitting the same golf ball. The pairings were:
Friday's Foursome Matches:
1) Jamie Donaldson/Lee Westwood VS Jim Furyk/Matt Kuchar >> EUROPE 2UP
2) Justin Rose/Henrik Stenson VS Hunter Mahan/Zach Johnson >> EUROPE 2&1
3) Rory McIlroy/Sergio Garcia VS Jimmie Walker/Rickie Fowler >> HALVED
4) Victor Dubuisson/Graeme McDowell VS Phil Mickelson/Keegen Bradley >> EUROPE 3&2
Europe was dominant in the afternoon and many were surprised that Reed and Speith weren't playing either, despite their morning success. This may have actually led to Europe's dominance, but we will never know. For the first afternoon match, Donaldson and Westwood led for most of it, but the US were 1UP in the early part of it. Both sides were evenly matched, I'd say, but Europe was just able to hold onto their lead against Furyk and Kuchar. The second match showed another great performance by the Rose/Stenson duo, but Johnson and Mahan didn't let them off that easily, as the match dabbled between all square and 1UP for most of time. Regardless of this, Rose and Stenson are looking like they're going to be key players in the Europe team and their chance at winning.
The third match was probably the most exciting of the afternoon (no surprises here). Walker and Fowler looked like they were going to win going into the 17th hole at 2UP, but a spectacular performance by Garcia and McIlroy resulted in them going 1UP, 1UP through the last two holes, which was good enough for a half. Despite the half, this will probably be considered a loss to Walker/Fowler and a win to McIlroy/Garcia. The last match of the day was another dominant performance by Dubuisson and McDowell, who led for pretty much all of the match against Mickelson and Bradley. Both McDowell and especially Dubuisson played excellent golf and deserved the win. Many golf experts were critical of Tom Watson's decision to play Mickelson, due to him being older in age (some reported that he looked very tired after his 36 holes, but can't you blame him?). On the other hand, we saw a taste of the 2010 Graeme McDowell on the 16th and final hole, where GMac holed a long putt and similar to how he did in the 2010 Ryder Cup (he even celebrated the same way too!)). It's stuff like this that you'll only see in the Ryder Cup.
Finally, here are tomorrow morning's groupings:
Saturday's Fourball Matches:
1) Justin Rose/Henrik Stenson VS Bubba Watson/Matt Kuchar
2) Jamie Donaldson/Lee Westwood VS Jim Furyk/Hunter Mahan
3) Thomas Bjorn/Martin Kaymer VS Patrick Reed/Jordan Spetih
4) Rory McIlroy/Ian Poulter VS Jimmie Walker/Rickie Fowler
Very interesting pairings for sure, now we'll just have to wait and see how they play. Stay tuned for our coverage tomorrow on Twitter and our recap post too!
-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews
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