Saturday Afternoon at the Ryder Cup Was Case in Point

FARMINGDALE, N.Y.—His voice sounds like car wheels on a gravel road. He has an upright carriage and a stately amble. Everything about Thomas Bjorn conveys gravitas. He has been an an unsung architect of Europe’s Ryder Cup dominance over the last three decades, as a player, captain and member of the Team Europe committee that has cracked the code on how to biennially embarrass the U.S. Bjorn is not prone to hyperbole, but in the Saturday evening gloaming, standing behind Bethpage’s 18th hole, he said it all: “This is the greatest team we’ve ever had.”

The Europeans lead 11.5-4.5. We shall see during Sunday singles if they can become the first Ryder Cup team to crack 20 points, but that doesn’t really matter. They are already the first road team to win all four partner sessions, and the lead doesn’t fully convey how brilliant Europe has been. They have repeatedly broken the Americans’ heart with outrageous shotmaking and nerveless putting when it matters most. “Over the last few days,” says Paul McGinley, another key shot-caller in Europe’s Ryder Cup machine, “that’s the best performance I’ve ever seen.”

Saturday afternoon fourballs was case in point. In a move that reflected the growing U.S. desperation, captain Keegan Bradely paired together his (putatively) best players, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau. They responded by playing 16 holes in nine under par…and got boatraced 3 & 2 by Justin Rose, the 45 year-old lion, and Tommy Fleetwood, the reigning FedEx Cup champ who is forever flag-hunting. (Fleetwood, who won a hard fought match with Rory McIlroy in the morning to run his lifetime foursomes record to 6-0-0, is now 4-0 in this Cup, nearly matching the U.S. point total all by himself.) With the sun setting on Bethpage, clutch play by J.J. Spaun carried the U.S. to its only fourball win. The final match was all square playing the 18th hole, and, if the Americans could steal that one, they would carry all the momentum into the team room and narrow the deficit to 5 points, giving themselves a glimmer. But from a fairway bunker, Matt Fitzpatrick reprised his Brookline heroics and hit it to gimme distance, securing a full point for Europe and snuffing out any American fantasies about a Sunday comeback.

Fitzpatrick’s heroics is emblematic of how stacked Europe is. The team derives much of its swagger and identity from its twin alphas, the fiery McIlroy (3-0-1) and glowering Jon Rahm (3-1-0), whose seemingly impossible chip-in on the 8th hole keyed a Saturday foursomes victory. (That win pushed Rahm to 9-1-3 in his previous dozen matches.) Fleetwood’s iron play and unflappable demeanor make him a deadly wingman; by point percentage, he is the best European Ryder Cupper of all time, while Rahm is fourth and McIlroy sixth. But there is blue-chip talent throughout the lineup. Fitzpatrick, the 2023 U.S. Open champ, came in as one of Europe’s question marks, with a 1-7 Ryder Cup record. All he’s done is go 2-1 to slay that narrative. Lowry (1-0-1), the 2019 Open Championship winner, was a tower of strength on Saturday afternoon as insults rained down upon him and McIlroy; if you didn’t know better, you would think Lowry’s given name is Shane You Fat Fuck. Rose (2-0) is a future Hall of Famer who lives for big moments so he can break out his well rehearsed theatrics. Tyrrell Hatton (3-0) is easily one of the 20 best players in the world and an impish presence who can pair with anyone. It is a sign of Europe’s depth that twentysomething studs Viktor Hovland (1-1-0) and Ludvig Aberg (1-2) have been relegated to supporting roles.

Presiding over all of this is the meticulous Donald, who has come up aces with every pairing. He had the stones to bench for both Saturday sessions the European Tour stalwart Rasmus Højgaard; meanwhile, his counterpart Keegan Bradley was too nice (or inflexible to deviate from the predetermined plan) to sit any of the players who had let down the team on Friday.

Donald’s ascension into a neo-Tony Jacklin owes much to providence. Henrik Stenson had already been named Europe’s captain for 2023 but he was stripped of the job when he bolted to LIV Golf. Donald was a stopgap who has turned himself into an icon. It’s easy to forget now that Team Europe was at a nadir when Donald got the job in 2022. The U.S. had won two of the three previous Cups, convincingly, and the tour wars with LIV led to the exile of a generation of future European captains. Donald steadied the operation with his calculating efficiency and then he supercharged the team-building. He led a team in transition to a lopsided victory in Rome and then emphasized continuity for the rematch in New York. His team mirrored his quiet confidence all week. While the Americans flailed for an identity and on-course leaders, and groped for pairings that had even a little bit of chemistry, the cohesive Europeans were freed up to play historically great golf.

“He’s the best captain I’ve ever seen,” says Bjorn. “I’ve watched him work tirelessly these last 4 years. The best thing that ever happened to us was he got the captaincy. It changed everything.”

Once the Europeans clinch the Cup on Sunday, there will be calls for Donald to come back for a third term. Why not? The boys in blue are a team for the ages, and there is no stopping now.