Our Blog - Ryder Cup 2018 - Friday (Day 1)
And they're off! We picked up the morning rounds already in progress, since they started before 9am and with our accommodations and transportation, it wasn't that easy to get there really early. Our volunteer shift ran from 1:30-8pm, so we would be able to see any matches that actually made it to hole #17 close-up!
The European pair of Tyrell Hatton and Paul Casey, who went up against Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. A lot has been made of the fact that Spieth wasn't playing with Patrick Reed, since they had such a great record last Ryder Cup. But Spieth and Thomas and best friends and have known each other since they were kids, and it seems like they wanted to be put together this time. The last picture shows "the entourage" ... there are 4 players and 4 caddies, then throw in a rules official ... but then look at the mass of people all walking behind. This includes wives, parents, girlfriends, kids, neighbors, best friends, lord only knows who else, along with 30 or so media/photographers.
The final group out had the American pair of Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed up against Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood. Woods has never played that well at the Ryder Cup (and this one didn't help his record any).
And here is one of the reasons why :-) Here is Tiger (I know ... the control is again right on top of him ... hit Play and then leave the mouse there ....) hacking it out of the very thick rough at this course.
Tommy Fleetwood walking by with his caddy, and then Tiger.
The US team won 3 of the 4 matches, and so lead 3 to 1 after the morning session. You won't see any pictures of the afternoon session at all here ... for 2 reasons. First, our volunteer shift started at 1:30, so we were sitting on hole #17 for the entire afternoon. Second, the European team swept the afternoon matches and none of them lasted long enough to play hole 17. Here you can see the scoreboard, showing all blue on the European side, mid-way through the afternoon session. This is one problem with volunteering at a match play event ... it is somewhat luck-of-the-draw what hole you get assigned to, and you may or may not get any actual players on your hole.
