The partisan galleries around the Bethpage Black Course fell eerily silent midway through the opening foursomes session of the 2025 Ryder Cup as the leaderboard turned blue and the European side put the first three points on the board.
And the script couldn’t have been better written for the United States side at the start, with Bryson DeChambeau launching a 344-yard drive just short of the green and then rolling in a birdie putt to give Justin Thomas and himself the early lead against Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton.
That was the high point of the day for the Americans until Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay stemmed the bleeding with a win over Viktor Hovland and Robert MacIntyre in the final match.
In between, it was all Europe. Rahm and Hatton were scrappy over the first five holes, but a superb Rahm recovery from the weeds on the sixth sparked a turnaround, and they went on to win seven, eight, 12 and 13 before closing out the match 4&3 when Thomas missed a par putt on the 15th.
Ludvig Åberg had a dream foursomes debut at Marco Simone in 2023, taking down Max Homa and Brian Harman and then handing out a 9&7 drubbing to Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka alongside Viktor Hovland. This time, it was Matt Fitzpatrick in his corner, but the world number one in opposition again, with Russell Henley by his side.
The European duo were superb – Fitzpatrick in particular – storming to a 5&3 victory in which they never trailed and took control by winning three-in-a-row from the fifth. The Englishman had lost all three of his previous foursomes matches, and his delight was on full display when he drained a 15-footer for par and victory on the 15th after Scheffler’s par putt had drifted by.
Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood won both of their foursomes matches in Rome, and they came roaring out of the traps again, winning the first after a delightful pitch by Fleetwood set up a five-footer for birdie for McIlroy.
By the time they walked off the sixth, they were 4UP, and stretched the advantage to five on the eighth, continuing to be deadly accurate from inside six feet and capitalising on the mistakes that Collin Morikawa and Harris English were making.
The Americans won the ninth – their only win of the match – but by that stage they’d fallen five behind and McIlroy and Fleetwood restored the 5UP lead on the 12th and closed out the match 5&4.
A this stage, Europe had put the first three points on the board for their first time in an away Ryder Cup, and it was the first time since 1951 that each of the first three matches had been won by four holes or more.
For most of the morning, Schauffele and Cantlay’s lead was the only flicker of red on what was a dim leaderboard, but despite taking a 3UP lead on the 11th, MacIntyre and Hovland won three of the next four to level the tie with three holes to play.
Now in danger of losing all four as they did in Rome, the final match became crucial for Keegan Bradley and the American team. A poor tee shot on the par-3 17th from MacIntyre opened the door for Schauffele and Cantlay, and they hit the front again, guaranteeing at least a half-point and preventing another whitewash. They completed the job on the last as a wayward tee shot from Hovland led to a concession, but in just five of the previous 44 Ryder Cups has a team come from a 3-1 deficit after the opening session and gone on to win.
The afternoon fourball matches see Rahm again lead out the European side, this time with Sepp Straka as his partner, and Bradley gives a Ryder Cup debut to J.J. Spaun who’ll play alongside Scheffler.
Match number two sees Ben Griffin and DeChambeau take on Fleetwood and Justin Rose, with New York’s own, Cameron Young joining Thomas against Åberg and Rasmus Højgaard in match number three.
The final match of day one sees an all-Irish pairing as McIlroy and Shane Lowry square off against Cantlay and Sam Burns, with U.S. President Donald Trump in attendance and the home fans desperately hoping for an American revival.
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