After losing three of the first four matches on Friday, the Europeans have won nine of the last 12 to take a commanding 10-6 lead into Sunday’s Ryder Cup singles at Le Golf National.
Led by the red-hot duo of Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood – who beat Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed, 4 & 3, in the morning, and Woods and Bryson DeChambeau, 5 & 4, in the afternoon, the Europeans took three matches in the morning and two more in the afternoon.
Molinari and Fleetwood became the first duo to win four matches in a Ryder Cup.
“A little bit emotional right now. We’re only on Saturday. We were really, really good this afternoon. We played really solid, we played really well,” said Fleetwood.
“But yeah, about the piece of history together, it’s very special. And just glad that, you know, we’ve done our job for the team and we can watch the guys come in now and hopefully we can turn a couple of the matches around or get the point.
“And team’s doing really well at the moment. But for us, we’ve had a great time.”
In the morning four-ball session, the Europeans took the first three matches, but Spieth and Thomas came through for the Americans in the anchor match to secure one point.
“We had a difficult match. We had Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy both playing solid golf right now, and so that actually kept our focus on the match,” said Spieth.
“We really — even though we started to make a run there, being 2-down early, there’s not a whole lot of extra time to watch score boards.
“You’ve really just got to dig deep and worry about your own match. It was a really fun match.”
The Americans performed better in the afternoon, led once again by Spieth and Thomas, who routed Ian Poutler and Rory McIlroy, 4 & 3. The key afternoon match had Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka going against Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson. The Americans badly needed this point – or at least a split, and had shaved the deficit to one, but a bad tee shot by DJ on the 17th effectively ended their chances.
DAY-TWO RYDER CUP RESULTS
EUROPE 10, U.S. 6
FOURBALL: EUROPE 3, U.S. 1
1. EUROPE 1-0
Tony Finau and Brooks Koepka
Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy 2 & 1
2. EUROPE 2-0
Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler
Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton 3 & 2
3. EUROPE 3-0
Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed
Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood 4 & 3
4. EUROPE 3-1
Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth 2 & 1
Ian Poulter and Jon Rahm
FOURSOMES: EUROPE 2, U.S. 2
1. EUROPE 1-0
Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka
Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson 2 & 1
2. EUROPE 1-1
Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson 3 & 2
Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren
3. EUROPE 2-1
Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau
Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood 5 & 4
4. EUROPE 2-2
Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth 4 & 3
Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy
Developing report. More to come.
