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Perthshire, Scotland (SportsNetwork.com) – Saturday’s play at the Ryder Cup matched Friday’s action.
The Americans won 2 1/2 points both mornings, but the Europeans answered by winning 3 1/2 both afternoons. Through two days, the Europeans lead the United States, 10-6, at Gleneagles.
The 4-point deficit was the hole that the Americans faced at the 1999 Ryder Cup, and the Europeans were behind by the same 10-6 margin in 2012. The trailing teams rallied to win those two Ryder Cups.
“Well, we saw what happened at Medinah (in 2012) obviously. We learned as much from Medinah as America did. There was a big learning curve for us there,” said European captain Paul McGinley. “We certainly won’t be complacent. It’s a word we’ve used a lot this week. We’re going to have a strong meeting tonight, we’re going to be on it tomorrow, and we’ve got to finish up the job. The guys were magnificent today, and they have been all week, but we’re not finished.”
“First of all, we’ve come back from 10-6. That’s the first thing. They know it, but I’ll reiterate it,” said U.S. captain Tom Watson on what he’ll tell his team. “Our rookies, Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth and Jimmy Walker, have played magnificent golf. Tomorrow, let’s see what happens. We’ve got the players to do it. Credit to the Europeans, they played great today.”
Jamie Donaldson and Lee Westwood won their second match of foursomes play as they handed Zach Johnson and Matt Kuchar a 2 & 1 loss.
Victor Dubuisson and Graeme McDowell also won their second foursomes match. They trounced Rickie Fowler and Walker, who had halved their first three matches, by a resounding 5 & 4 count.
Sergio Garcia and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy took down Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan, 3 & 2. The final match was halved. Martin Kaymer and Justin Rose rallied from a 2-down deficit to halve Reed and Spieth.
Reed and Spieth had won a pair of four-ball matches by big margins in the morning.
Donaldson and Westwood twice trailed early in the first match of the afternoon, but fought back. Johnson chipped in for birdie at the first, but he found water with his second shot at the par-5 second. That led to a bogey and they conceded the Europeans birdie putt.
Johnson narrowly missed a birdie chip at the fourth and was conceded par. Donaldson missed an 8-footer for par and the Americans were 1-up again.
Donaldson stuffed his second at the fifth to a foot. That birdie squared the match and when Kuchar missed a par putt at six, the Europeans had their first lead of the match.
Kuchar birdied the eighth to square the match for the final time. Donaldson won the next two holes with a birdie and a par. Johnson made eagle at 14 to trim the deficit to 1-down, but Westwood made birdie at 16 to move the Europeans 2-up with two to play. After the Americans failed to make birdie at 17, they conceded the hole and the match to the Europeans.
“A huge amount of satisfaction. There’s no easy games out here and it’s tough to win a point at the Ryder Cup. Jamie played great again today,” Westwood said. “We played good all day, but we were solid and I think we made one bogey, which is pretty good golf in foursomes.”
Garcia and McIlroy looked like they were going to run away with their match early on. The Europeans won the first with a par, then Mahan missed a 6- footer for par at the second. That dropped the Americans 2-down.
Mahan made his par putt at three to trim their deficit to 1-down. The match remained that way until the 14th. Furyk and Garcia made birdie putts at six, then Mahan made par putts to halve four of five holes from the seventh.
Both teams bogeyed the 12th and parred 13. Garcia converted a 5-footer for birdie at 14 to extend their lead back to 2-up. They halved the 15th, then the Americans made a mess of the 16th. McIlroy hit a good bunker shot, and that birdie putt and the match was conceded after Mahan missed a long par attempt.
“Obviously we’re in a good position, but I think we all remember what happened a couple years ago. This is exact same score line that we were down going into the last day at Medinah, so no complacency on our side,” McIlroy stated. “We need to go out there tomorrow, focus and get the job done.”
Reed missed a par putt at the third, but Kaymer made his par to give the Europeans a 1-up lead. Kaymer missed a par putt at four, and the Americans were conceded par.
The Americans took the sixth with a par, which gave them a 1-up lead. Spieth made birdie at seven to push their lead to 2-up. Rose chipped to tap-in range at No. 9 and when Reed failed to match that birdie, the U.S. lead was 1-up at the turn.
Spieth made a 9-footer for birdie at 10 and Kaymer missed from a few feet closer to push the American lead back to 2-up. Rose made a short par putt at 12 to trim the deficit to 1-down.
Reed missed a 7-footer for par at 15 and Kaymer kicked in his short par effort to square the match. Both teams made a mess of 16. The Europeans 3-putted for bogey, and Reed missed a 3-foot par putt to keep the match all square.
If that putt had dropped, the match would have ended at 17, where the Americans’ 5-foot birdie attempt was conceded after Rose missed a par putt.
Both teams were in the fairway at the par-5 18th, then their second shots found the same greenside bunker right of the putting surface. The Americans’ ball was under the side lip of the bunker, so Reed could do no better than blasting to 20 feet.
Kaymer’s sand shot stopped six feet from the hole. After Spieth missed his birdie try, Rose drained his birdie to halve the match.
“The U.S. team got unlucky with the lie they caught in the bunker. That is the bunker to miss it in to that flag,” Rose stated. “It was the kind of match no one wanted to win. Martin and I had a hard time getting it up and down, there were a lot of unforced errors from both teams.”
The final match was all Europe. After Walker missed a par putt at the second, the Europeans were conceded birdie. Walker hit a poor second shot from the fairway on three and that led to a bogey and another conceded birdie for the Dubuisson and McDowell.
Walker missed another short putt at five, then McDowell made birdie at six to give the Europeans a 4-up lead. Walker found a hazard at eight, which led to a double-bogey.
McDowell was conceded par and the Europeans were 5-up. Fowler poured in a birdie putt on 11, but they bogeyed the 13th to drop five down with five to go. The match was over one hole later.
NOTES: The Europeans won seven of the eight points available from the two foursomes sessions … Stephen Gallacher, Keegan Bradley, Phil Mickelson and Webb Simpson all did not play on Saturday … For Mickelson, that was the first time in his career, both Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, that he sat for both sessions in the same day … Rose, McIlroy, Fowler and Walker were the only four players that will have played all five sessions.