[PHOTO: Andrew Redington]
A lot didn’t go right for the US Ryder Cup team on Friday morning at Bethpage Black. While the home team traditionally has success (for reasons still not quite understood) in foursomes, the Americans wound up trailing 3-1. Worst yet, their most counted on players, Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas, all found themselves in a losing effort.
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Mind you, there’s “plenty of golf still to be played”™ as anybody associated with both teams was quick to say ahead of the start of afternoon fourball play. But the performance that the Europeans put on in the opening session (or the Americans failed to put on) is a bit foreboding when you look back at the history of the Ryder Cup. And that’s what Elias Sports Bureau (ESB) did, digging up a variety of stats to contextualise what happened to both sides and what that might mean in terms of predicting the ultimate outcome on Monday morning (Australian time).
For instance, according to ESB, this is the first time that Europe has won the first three matches played in a Ryder Cup when it’s been held in the US. And it’s just the third time in the past 27 Ryder Cups that the Europeans have earned at least three points in the first session, the other two times coming in 2004 and 2023. At both of those Ryder Cups, they won the overall match with the US by at least five points.
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But it’s this stat that potentially should be most concerning to US Ryder Cup team fans. The US has overcome a 3-1 or worse deficit in the opening session to win the Ryder Cup only two times. The first was in 1949 at Ganton Golf Club in England, the US winning 9-7. The second was all the way back in 1971, when the Americans rallied to win at Old Warson Country Club in St Louis (and comfortably with a 18½-13½ total).
An aside… Europe has actually overcome that same 3-1 or worse deficit in the first session to win the Ryder Cup three times (1957, 1985 and 2018 in France).
