Europe Wins Ryder Cup in Dominant Fashion | The Sunday Swing

Welcome back to the Sunday Swing presented by 2nd Swing Golf. This week, all eyes were on the marquee team event in golf, the Ryder Cup, played this year at Marco Simone in Italy.

Tournament History

The Ryder Cup features 24 of the best golfers in the world -- 12 from the United States, and 12 from Europe -- in a team event vying to hoist the trophy. The event was founded by Samuel Ryder back in 1927 and has been played regularly since. Today, it's played every two years, with the teams alternating as hosts. Also of note, it wasn't until 1979 when Team Europe was expanded to include all of Europe instead of just Great Britain. 

In the last Ryder Cup, held at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, the hosting Team USA dominated Europe in a commanding win, setting a new scoring record in a 19-9 route. At the time, it was believed this victory would set the stage for Ryder Cup dominance in the coming years. However, Europe quickly put an end to that discussion at the 2023 Ryder Cup.

The Sunday Swing

The Sunday Swing goes to the entire European Team. From the very beginning of this Ryder Cup, Europe was the better team. They set the tone in the first session of Foursomes on Friday morning, winning all four possible points to grab a big early lead. The Europeans, led by a trio top five golfers that includes Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, and Viktor Hovland, were the aggressors early and immediately had the home crowd energized.

Team USA remained winless after Friday afternoon Fourball matches thanks to magic on the 18th hole that wiped away would-be points for the Americans. In the first Fourball match, Hovland and teammate Tyrrell Hatton were tied, but their best hope at a birdie was Hovland's 30 foot putt up and over a ridge. Of course, he canned it, sending a thunderous roar through the golf course and leaving Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth with only a half point instead of a needed full point.

In the following match, The US entered the 18th with a 1-up lead, seemingly needing birdie to earn a full point. This was until Rahm's long eagle putt slammed into the back of the cup and dropped into the hole, winning the hole for the Europeans and, once again, only leaving the US with a half point in that match.

Justin Rose repeated the same magic on 18 in the next match, draining a tricky birdie putt to win the hole and tie the third match of the session. When McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick had convincingly won the fourth match of the session, Europe held a commanding 6.5-1.5 lead.

On Day 2, Europe's dominance continued in the morning, winning three of the four matches to increase their lead to a huge 9.5-2.5 deficit. Desperate for a spark, the Americans came out firing in the Saturday afternoon fourballs, taking early command of the first two matches and winning them with relative ease. Sam Burns and Collin Morikawa created a 6-up lead on Hovland and Ludvig Aberg before ultimately winning 4&3. Meanwhile, Max Homa and Brian Harman, who had also won their foursomes match in the morning, took care of Tommy Fleetwood and Nicolai Hojgaard to put two more points on the board and narrow the deficit to 9.5-4.5, still in favor of Europe.

Europe's duo of Rose and Robert Macintyre rallied to take down Thomas and Spieth in the third match of the session. The conclusion of the fourth match, however, brought momentum back on the US side. The European duo of McIlroy and Fitzpatrick led 1-up after 15 holes over Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark. That's when Cantlay decided to step up. He birdied the short 16th to tie that hole for the US, and proceeded to hit his tee shot on the 17th hole to roughly six feet. He knocked that in to tie the match with the 18th hole remaining.

On the 18th, Cantlay dropped a long, double-breaking putt of some 50 feet to make birdie and win that hole as well for Team USA, earning a full point. It appeared to be the spark the US team needed to energize a historic comeback during Sunday singles, as they trailed 10.5-5.5 heading into the final day.

However, the US never made a serious threat to challenge Europe's lead. Setting the tone was Rahm's birdie on the 18th hole in his match vs Scottie Scheffler, which was the first match of the day, to tie the match and earn a half point. It was that kind of weekend for the Americans. So often, they were unable to close out matches where a full point was there for the taking.

The Sunday Singles were split by a score of 6-6, resulting in a final score of 16.5-11.5 in favor of Europe and captain Luke Donald.

Top Performers

Europe

It's hard to pick out who was the top performer from the European side when they had so many players contributing to their victory. Going into the Ryder Cup, everyone knew the Europeans were going to lean on their big three of Rory Mcilroy, Viktor Hovland and Jon Rahm, and they delivered. The trio combined to go 9-2-3, accounting for 10.5 of the Europeans' 16.5 points.

Mcilroy finished the weekend as the top point getter among all players with 4 points total, while Hovland added 3.5, as did Tyrell Hatton, while Rahm scored 3. Though Rahm may not have been the top point getter, he may have been the most important player for Europe.

In his Friday four-ball matchup, Rahm and partner Nicolai Hojgaard trailed Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka by 1 going into the driveable par 4 16th. After just missing the green to the left, Rahm would chip-in for eagle to tie the match up heading into 17. Scheffler and Koepka would retake a 1-up lead with a birdie on 17, earning the Americans at least half a point. On the 18th, with the Europeans needing to win the hole to earn a half point themselves, and squash any sort of momentum for the Americans, Rahm found the par 5 in 2, and then drained his eagle putt to tie the match, and ultimately help the Europeans win the afternoon session. He'd follow up that clutch performance with another in Sunday's singles. In the first match out, Rahm found himself playing against Scottie Scheffler in singles for the second consecutive Ryder Cup. Rahm trailed Scheffler by 1 going into the 18th hole. Rahm narrowly missed another eagle putt, and would settle for birdie, but it was enough as Scheffler had to settle for par, earning the Europeans another half-point, and sending a devastating blow to any hope of an American comeback. 

The European Ryder Cup Team | What's in the Bag?


U.S.

There weren't many bright spots on the U.S. side, as Max Homa was the only American to finish the Ryder Cup with a winning record. Homa was also the only American to play in all five sessions, going 3-1-1 overall. After losing his opening match in Friday's foursomes, Homa rebounded with a half-point in the afternoon. Then on Saturday, Homa, along with partner Brian Harman went 2-0, giving the Americans their only point in foursomes, and followed that up with another win in four-ball. Then in the Sunday Singles session, Homa faced Matt Fitzpatrick. Leading by 1 going into the par 5 18th hole, Homa's 2nd shot found the heavy rough to the right of the green. Rather than try and hack it out of there, Homa took an unplayable lie, knowing he wouuld need to get up-and-down for par, and hope Fitzpatrick would miss his birdie putt. Fitzpatrick would indeed miss that putt, and after chipping his ball to about 7 feet, Homa would roll it in to win the match,, and at least keep the Americans' slim chances of a comeback alive. 

The U.S. Ryder Cup Team | What's in the Bag?

Automatic Qualifiers vs. Captain's Picks

There's always a little drama about each team's Captain's picks prior to the Ryder Cup, and plenty of second-guessing following the conclusion of the event, and this year's Ryder Cup was no different. There are 6 automatic qualifiers for both the U.S. and European Ryder Cup teams, based on points accumulated prior to the event. That's the easy part for the captains. The hard part, filling out the other 6 spots with their own Captain's picks. No one can criticize or second-guess a Captain if one of the automatic qualifiers didn't play well, they were on the team regardless. But if any of their Captain's picks struggle, that's an entirely different story, because ultimately the Captain selected those players and many will direct blame the Captain's way for not making the theoretical correct picks. 

The U.S. Automatic Qualifiers were: Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Max Homa, Brian Harman and Wyndham Clark. The European Automatic Qualifiers were: Rory Mcilroy, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tyrell Hatton and Robert MacIntrye.

There wasn't a huge advantage in terms of rankings one way or the other. The American's automatic qualifiers were all ranked inside the Official World Golf Rankings Top 10, while four of the Europeans were, with Tyrrell Hatton just outside the top 10 at No. 11. The one outlier in terms of OWGR, was Robert MacIntrye, who came in ranked 55th in the World. So maybe the Americans had the slight edge, but not much.

On the experience side, three of the American automatic qualifiers were making their Ryder Cup debut, compared to just one (MacIntyre) on the European side, so the advantage there went the Europeans' way.

As for how each side's automatic qualifiers performed, well it was night-and-day different. The European automatic qualifiers went 15-4-5 overall, with every single player earning at least one win. Five of the six European automatic qualifiers finished with winning records, with Matt Fitzpatrick being the only one to finish with a losing record, going 1-2-0. As for the American Automatic Qualifiers, they went a combined 9-11-4. Only Max Homa finished with a winning record, while World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, was the lone American automatic qualifier to not win a match, going 0-2-2 overall. 

For the Captain's Picks, Zach Johnson's six selections were: Colin Morikawa, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Sam Burns. Luke Donald's picks were: Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood, Nicolai Hojgaard, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose and Sepp Straka.  

On paper, Zach Johnson's Captain's picks were the better side, with all six players ranked in the top 25 of the Official World Golf Rankings, while the European side had just two players inside the Top 25. The U.S. also had the experience advantage with five of their six players having played in a Ryder Cup previously, compared to just three from Europe. But that's why it's just on paper, because like the European Automatic Qualifiers, the European Captain's picks greatly outperformed the Americans. 

Europe's Captain's Picks went a combined 8-9-3 over the three-day event, while the Americans went 4-12-4.  Rickie Fowler was the only player, regardless of team, to not register at least a half point, going 0-2-0.  Nicolai Hojgaard was the only European player to not win a match, though he did earn a half point with Jon Rahm in Friday's four-ball session. Tommy Fleetwood was the best performing Captain's Pick, going 3-1-0 and was the only Captain's Pick, regardless of side, to finish with a winning record. Three European Captain's picks finished with even records as Ludvig Aberg went 2-2-0, while Shane Lowry and Justin Rose each went 1-1-1. The best performing American Captain's Picks were Brooks Koepka, who went 1-1-1, and Justin Thomas, who went 1-2-1. 

Looking Ahead

The Ryder Cup will return in 2025 at it heads to New York where the U.S. and European sides will battle it out at Bethpage Black. The U.S. will look to make it 6 consecutive Ryder Cup victories for the home side, while the Europeans will look to become the first visiting team to win on foreign soil, with Europe being the last to do so at Medinah in 2012.