Day 1 of the Ryder Cup is in the books and Europe leads the U.S. by three points, 5.5-2.5.
VSiN’s golf analysts weigh in on Friday’s action and look ahead to Saturday for the foursomes format, starting at 7:10 a.m. ET at Bethpage Black in New York. Europe is -250 to lift the trophy; the U.S. is +190 at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Saturday’s pairings have been announced:
Match 1, 7:10 a.m. ET
Europe: Matt Fitzpatrick, Ludvig Åberg
USA: Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Young
Match 2, 7:26 a.m.
Europe: Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood
USA: Harris English, Collin Morikawa
Match 3, 7:42 a.m.
Europe: Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton
USA: Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay
Match 4, 7:58 a.m.
Europe: Robert MacIntyre, Viktor Hovland
USA: Russell Henley, Scottie Scheffler
On the bench:
USA: Sam Burns, Ben Griffin, J.J. Spaun, Justin Thomas
Europe: Rasmus Højgaard, Justin Rose, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry
Kelley Bydlon
So far, so good if you’re in on Europe to win the Ryder Cup like me. An impressive morning session put them up 3-1, and then they added 2.5 points more in the afternoon. It actually could have been worse for the U.S. team, but Patrick Cantlay was red hot down the stretch leading to a half point.
Unsurprisingly, both teams rolled out all 12 of their players on the first day. The question now is will both teams take the same approach on day two?
The European heavyweights really carried things with Tommy Fleetwood and Jon Rahm both going 2-0, Rory McIlroy went 1-0-1, and all three put up impressive on course stats. One of my big bets was Matt Fitzpatrick over 1.5 points, and if you look at strokes gained data at datagolf.com, he was the best of the day, but only played in one session. I’d expect to see him in both sessions tomorrow, and I think Europe needs to keep rolling out Rahm, Rory, and Fleetwood, but there are definite concerns with the bottom end of their roster.
The U.S. team I expected to have more options they’d want to roll out there, but man, guys like Sam Burns, Harris English, Russell Henley, Ben Griffin, J.J. Spaun, and Collin Morikawa were less than impressive. They definitely got a boost from Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay and Justin Thomas, and I expect those guys to be leaned on more going forward. ESPECIALLY Cameron Young. If you’re looking for some props, I wouldn’t hate targeting him. And when it comes to Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau, too much will be made about them going 0-2 today. They both played some of the better golf for team USA.
If you did play Europe on the three-way line like me, I wouldn’t hate taking some +190 on the U.S. side if you’d like to lock in some profit and root for your country over the weekend. I’ll be staying away though and letting my bets ride.
As far as bets for Saturday, I will post anything on VSiN.com.com I land on.
