Today started with the USA looking to make some big moves and change the momentum. With the Saturday morning foursomes, that is not exactly what happened.
In fact, Hovland and Aberg won their match 9 & 7 against Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka. It made for a quick round of golf!
Sunday is all about the singles, so today is the last day that players will be able to rely on each other as partners. Here is a recap of everything we saw during the Saturday Ryder Cup.
Now, let’s recap today’s events!
Foursomes or the alternate shot format is certainly not easy, and you must be careful who is paired together. At this point, it’s starting to look like Luke Donald may be a little better at matching people up than Zach Johnson.
Saturday Morning Foursomes Results
The Saturday Morning foursomes left Europe ahead 3:1. At one point, it looked as though the US could grab two or three points, but in the end, this was another losing session for them.
Here’s what the matches looked like:
- Rory McIlroy/Tommy Fleetwood (2&1) vs. Justin Thomas/Jordan Spieth
- Viktor Hovland/Ludvic Aberg (9&7) vs. Scottie Scheffler/Brooks Koepka
- Shane Lowry/Sepp Straka vs. Max Homa/Brian Harman (4&2)
- Jon Rahm/Tyrrell Hatton (2&1) vs. Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay
We can’t really move on to these afternoon matches without talking about the Hovland/Aberg pairing. They won the first four holes, tied the 5th, won the 6th, tied the 7th, and then won the next four to make it an incredibly fast match.
Zach Johnson has mentioned some of the players being slightly under the weather on the US team. Fowler is, for some reason sitting out all of Saturday, with no real information being given. If the players were already not feeling well, losing 9 & 7 can certainly make that happen.
Although there is a lot of negative that could be said about the play on the US side. Max Homa is proving to be the MVP of this Ryder Cup. He had solid play in the Saturday morning foursomes, coming away with the only win, and this afternoon, he’s off to another strong start.
Nothing like a hole out to win a match to get some momentum going into the afternoon.
Ryder Cup Saturday Afternoon Foursomes
The Saturday afternoon foursomes are over, and it wasn’t quite what the US needed to try and catch up. They are now in one of the situations where they ask golfers like Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, and Matt Fitzpatrick to let up a little, which is just not happening!
- Victor Hovland/Ludvig Aberg vs. Sam Burns/Collin Morikawa (4&3)
- Tommy Fleetwood/Nicolai Hojgaard vs. Max Homa/Brian Harman (2&1)
- Justin Rose/Robert Macintyre (3&2) vs. Justin Thomas/Jordan Spieth
- Matt Fitzpatrick/Rory McIlroy vs. Patrick Cantlay/Wyndham Clark (1 up)
One of the most interesting moments of the Saturday afternoon round was on the 16th hole when Zach Johnson came in and switched clubs for Jordan Spieth. This was a hole that Spieth and Thomas had to win. The change from driver to 3 wood put Jordan in the water, and that match was done.
It’s a decision we are all kind of wondering about, much like some of the other decisions on the US side for this 2023 Ryder Cup.
Saturday Final Results
After the first two days of the Ryder Cup, Europe is in a perfect position to claim the cup tomorrow. The final scores after Saturday’s play are:
Europe 10.5 and USA 5.5
Tomorrow might not be the exciting Ryder Cup final we have all been hoping for, but there will be some great golf to watch, and the USA still has some hope.
This is a breaking news report and will be updated throughout the day as play continues; stay tuned for all things Ryder Cup 2023!
