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Ryder Cup: Euros take commanding lead after morning matches, neutralizing America’s greatest advantage — the crowd

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — They arrived at Bethpage Black hours before the dawn — tired, poor (from paying a thousand dollars a ticket), huddled masses yearning to cuss out Rory McIlroy. The American crowds that lined Bethpage’s fairways 20 and 30 deep sported every manner of patriotic garb you can imagine, from eagle-beak hats to Mount Rushmore costumes to USA basketball jerseys.

They cheered deliriously as the flyover thundered over Long Island. They booed as Jon Rahm took his first swing — like, all the way through the swing. They nearly brought down the grandstand with joy as Bryson DeChambeau hammered a massive opening drive to set up a first-hole drive.

And then, well … nothing. European fans can compose instantly memorable chants on the fly; American fans respond with “F— you, Ro-ry!” And that was about the only resistance that anyone American could manage for the morning after the Europeans took a 3-1 after the first four matches.

The drinking started early in Bethpage, with “pouring stations” already seeing lines for $18 cocktails before most people in the Greater New York area were even at work. But the combination of alcohol and disappointment crushed the United States galleries as the inexorable truth became clearer: Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood winning four of their first six holes, Ludvig Åberg and Matt Fitzpatrick throwing world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler into a Dumpster, Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton catching and then flipping DeChambeau and Justin Thomas.

After DeChambeau and Thomas won the first hole, they wouldn't win another. Not one. They at least held a lead, something Scheffler/Russell Henley nor Collin Morikawa/Harris English can't say. Europe stepped on the gas early, the U.S. missed that pedal altogether and instead mashed the brakes and, well, all the momentum captain Keegan Bradley hoped to gain from the highly partisan crowd was lost.

All the way, as the slow-moving revolution ground its way across the grounds of Bethpage, the European fans chanted and cheered. “¡Olé, olé olé olé!” rang out through the trees, and American crowds were reduced to cheering for decent approaches and halves, not wins.

“Come ON!” one fan bellowed with vein-popping rage at DeChambeau and Thomas, attempting to singlehandedly wrestle the American duo back into contention. But the fan was virtually alone; American fans were gobsmacked into silence by a relentless European assault, that included mirac.

Rahm and Hatton cruised to a 4&3 victory over DeChambeau and Thomas; McIlroy and Fleetwood strolled to a 5&4 win over Morikawa and English; Ludvig Åberg and Matt Fitzpatrick derailed the world No. 1 in Scheffler and Henley 5&3. Only Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay managed to stay above water, hanging on for a 2-up victory over Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland — the only match that went all 18 holes.

There’s a long way to go, but history suggests that the United States is already in trouble. As Elias Sports notes, in all Ryder Cups dating back in 1991, teams that have won at least three points out of four in the first session have a record of 7-1 in the overall Ryder Cup.

In other words, if the fans are going to get involved in this, they need to get loud, fast. You wouldn't think that’s something you’d need to tell a Long Island crowd, but here we are.

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