Rahm leads off morning and afternoon sessions with wins as U.S. top players are shut out.
— Europe’s best showed Friday that points, not panache, is what matters in the Ryder Cup.
Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood helped Team Europe silence the crowd at Bethpage Black and reminded the Americans that playing at home won’t make it any easier to get their hands on that 17-inch gold trophy.
The Europeans won both sessions — before and after President Donald Trump was there — and had a 5 1/2 to 2 1/2 lead going into Saturday.
“It’s a great day for Europe,” McIlroy said. “We would have absolutely taken this.”
The two biggest American stars, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau, lost both their matches. Scheffler didn’t reach the 17th hole in either of his losses.
Scheffler became the first No. 1 player since Tiger Woods in 2002 at The Belfry to lose both his matches on opening day of the Ryder Cup.
And the Americans were lucky the deficit wasn’t slightly worse. McIlroy had a 12-foot birdie putt, the final shot of a long day, that broke just left of the cup as he and Shane Lowry settled for a halve with Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns.
Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to attend the Ryder Cup. He was behind protective glass at first, then walked to the first tee for the afternoon session with DeChambeau. He left a little earlier than planned, perhaps not liking what he saw.
U.S. captain Keegan Bradley was on the first tee some 90 minutes before the matches even got started, trying to rile up the crowd — the massive grandstand surrounding the first tee and 18th green was full in the darkness — for a loud and noisy opening session. He grabbed a microphone and said to the crowd, “Let’s (expletive) go, boys!”
Bradley also sent out DeChambeau in the opening session, the two-time major champion and entertainer who had said this summer he wanted to bring energy and a “tsunami” of a crowd.
