Our Blog - Ryder Cup 2018 - Sunday Singles (final day)

The Sunday matches didn't start until noon, and we actually saw quite a few come through 17 although not all of them. We were lucky enough to work up by the green today ... Susan worked right at the green (trying to keep people quiet) and Tom worked the ropes on the pathway between 17 and 18 and so was right next to the players as they left the hole. There was a big-screen near the green and so we could watch the television coverage from Sky Sports. Here, you can see the first match (McIlroy against Justin Thomas, all square up to this point) and where each player hit their drives. Both hit nice shots in, but you could tell the difference being in the fairway made, as Thomas was able to stop his on the green while Rory's ball bounced behind the green. Rory made a great up-and-down while Thomas missed the birdie putt that would have finished the match. However, Rory had problems on 18 and ended up losing.

Next match was Brooks Koepka vs Paul Casey, with Brooks coming to the 17th 1 Up. Casey hit a great shot, leaving a very make-able birdie putt, which he did to win the hole to bring the match back to all square, which is where it ended (Halved).

The next match (Rose vs Simpson) ended on 16 so we didn't get to see them. So then came Jon Rahm against Tiger Woods. Rahm came to the hole 1 up already and hit the best approach we saw all day, leaving a really shot almost tap-in. Rahm approaching the green, acknowledging the huge roars that awaited him. Tiger looked long and hard at his shot, but in the end, he was unable to convert and Rahm won the hole. A set of the players (McIlroy, Casey, and Rose) were at the green and also got a nice handshake from Tiger.

Graeme McDowell, one of the vice captains, came by and sat right in front of me!

The next match was already on this hole while the other match was still lingering. You can see Tiger talking to one of the vice captains (left side), and a set of wives/girlfriends and miscellaneous people in the lower-right. You can make out upper-right a guy who looks like he is running down the fairway ... that was McIlroy, running down to meet up with Ian Poulter. The Tommy Fleetwood and Tony Finau group was somewhat lopsided, with Finau winning 6 and 4, so that match didn't make it to 17.

Poulter hit it fairly close also while Dustin Johnson's shot went a tiny bit long. Poulter had an opportunity to close out the match on 17, but missed the putt to halve the hole and head to 18. He won 18 to win the point for the Europeans.

Thorbjørn Olesen beat Jordan Spieth 5&4 so the next match for us was Sergio Garcia against Ricky Fowler, who came to the 17th 2 up with 2 to play. By now, Molinari has beaten Phil Mickelson to secure the cup for Europe, so the rest of the matches were purely "for pride". Ricky was on the green while Sergio came up just short, but at the end, they halved the hole and Sergio came out on top.

The next 3 matches ended on prior holes and so there was only 1 more match on the course. As they were clearing the green, Henrik Stenson came by, who had beaten Bubba Watson 5&4. He walked right in front of me and then went over to a group of Swedes (I assume) who were dressed to spell out his name.

The last match, between Bryson DeChambeau and Alex Norén, also came to 17 with Norén 1 Up. They halved this hole and 18, giving the match to Norén.

I did get a video of Bryson's chip, which almost went in!

And that was it! At the end of the day, the Europeans won 17 1/2 points to 10 1/2 points. Historically, Europe has now won the last 7 Ryder Cups that were held on European soil. And of course, now starts the "blame game" ... who is "at fault" for the American loss? Some people will say that the Europeans are more of a cohesive team than the Americans, who tend to be more individualists. Some will say that the course setup favored the Europeans, as the US team tends to play on what they call "Bomb and gouge" courses, were driving accuracy isn't important (bomb it as far as you can and if you are in the rough, gouge it out). Or that the American team didn't know the course as well as the Europeans since the Europeans play an event on the course every year. Mind you ... the American's could have played in it the last 4 years, and could have flown over anytime to play it.

Some people will blame Furyk for his Captains' picks, who went a combined 2 and 10 (Tiger, DeChambeau, and Mickelson were all shut out). However, if you look at the Ryder Cup rankings, Furyk picked the next 3 in the rankings (the top 8 are automatic, he picked #9, #10, and #11) along with #15 (Finau, who was the only captains pick who got any points). So if the teams were the top 11 plus 1 captains pick, the outcome would have been the same and Furyk would not be the subject of this kind of blame.

One could argue that Furyk didn't do well at pairings: Reed was pissed off that he didn't play with Spieth, for example, and why would you put Mickelson out in Alternate Shot format when he ranks 192nd out of 193 on tour this year in driving accuracy ... only one person on the PGA tour did WORSE than Phil. So WHY would you put him in a format where the team was required to play his tee shot, no matter where it landed???

But from my view, a few quotes from the US team in the press conference after the matches Sunday summed it up .... Tiger who said "We didn't execute like we had planned and wanted to." and Mickelson who said "I did not play well this year" and "we didn't execute". Mickelson was one who gave credit to the Europeans, when he said "And let's be honest. The European side played some exquisite golf. I mean, it was some phenomenal golf, and they flat-out beat us."

As we were leaving, we walked by the Golf Channel studio setup and could see Nick Faldo clearly through the plexiglass.