Europe up three as Scottie Scheffler goes winless on Day 1

Scottie Scheffler arrived astatine Bethpage Black arsenic the ascendant unit of the season. Day 1 told a antithetic story. The three-time large victor went winless successful some sessions and remains 2-4-2 successful his Ryder Cup career, inactive chasing his archetypal afloat constituent since 2021. Playing day four-ball with J.J. Spaun, helium missed a drawstring of makeable putts. “We gave ourselves plentifulness of opportunities,” helium said. “It truly conscionable came down to maine not holing capable putts.”

The greeting was rougher. Scheffler and Russell Henley fell 5 and 3 to Ludvig Åberg and Matt Fitzpatrick, past drew the aforesaid pairing for Saturday foursomes. U.S. skipper Keegan Bradley urged calm: “When you’re the No. 1 subordinate successful the world, you person a time that possibly it wasn’t his best, usually you bounce back… We are not disquieted astir Scottie Scheffler.”

Putting woes and a stubborn plan

American putting proved the theme. Bryson DeChambeau, who dropped some his matches, said of Europe: “They made everything… determination were truthful galore putts that conscionable didn’t spell successful for america that went successful for them.” Bradley echoed the sentiment yet kept religion with his blueprint. He swapped Cameron Young successful for Justin Thomas for Saturday foursomes, nevertheless near different greeting losers intact—including Collin Morikawa and Harris English, who mislaid 5 and 4 to Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood. DataGolf rates Morikawa-English arsenic the weakest of 132 imaginable pairings based connected strokes gained, a jarring information constituent for a must-start duo.

Europe leads by 3 aft the opening day, per ESPN Research the fourth-largest U.S. home-soil shortage aft Day 1. Only erstwhile has the U.S. rallied from a akin presumption astatine home—Brookline successful 1999. Bradley’s reminder: lone 28% of points are gone, Saturday offers a reset.

Saturday greeting foursomes (local): DeChambeau/Young vs. Fitzpatrick/Åberg (7:10) • Morikawa/English vs. McIlroy/Fleetwood (7:26) • Schauffele/Cantlay vs. Rahm/Hatton (7:42) • Henley/Scheffler vs. MacIntyre/Hovland (7:58)

Europe’s putts fell, the U.S. did not convert, and the borderline grew. The signifier is acceptable for a response, nevertheless the spread is real.