Americans sweep Europe to start Ryder Cup

“Justin and Henrik didn’t hole the putts this morning but they are still a wonderful pairing and Sergio and Rafa have been looking forward to playing together for the a long time”.

McIlroy and Pieters were also four up in match four, Pieters holing from six feet on the seventh and McIlroy from just two on the 10th after Johnson had holed from long distance.

“I played a little tight”, Mickelson said.

European rookie Danny Willett’s brother Peter caused a storm earlier in the week with a column in which he described American fans as, among other things, “cretins” for the way they shout out random things for no apparent reason.

The 41st Ryder Cup is off to a rollicking start at Hazeltine. They showed a massive amount, in my opinion, of desire and the fight in them to get themselves right back into it again.

Golf, bloody hell! Any kind of recovery looked remote following America’s electric start.

Mickelson conferenced with his teammate for the morning, Rickie Fowler, and American captain Davis Love III as the home crowd celebrated a almost unprecedented morning. He played all five matches and won all five, beating none other than Seve Ballesteros – another rookie who would go on to become one of Europe’s best ever – in four of those as the United States won handily 17-11.

“There’s a lot more points out there”. Though Europe’s heavyweights from Gleneagles stopped the bleeding they were never close to threatening a comeback and were done at the 16th green.

And in front of a raucous home crowd it was the American pair who put the first point on the board with a 3&2 victory which was soon followed by a thumping win for Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar over Lee Westwood and Thomas Pieters.

Kaymer and Garcia were on the losing end of their match to Jimmy Walker and Zach Johnson, who closed them out, 4 and 2, on the 16th hole.

Rickie Fowler finally won a match, teaming with Phil Mickelson to win three straight holes late in their foursomes match for a 1-up victory over Rory McIlroy and Andy Sullivan. McIlroy answered with back-to-back birdies and Europe regained a 2-up lead with four holes to play. Everyone was under par, they didn’t play bad – they just didn’t play great. Sullivan found water off the par-3 17th tee while the United States duo birdied to retake the lead for good. It paid off with the Europeans romping home 5&4.

The veteran Garcia – this time teamed with fellow Spaniard Rafael Cabrera-Bello, making his debut – won 3 & 2 against the new U.S. pairing of Ryan Moore and JB Holmes to close the gap once again.

The holders lost all of their early matches to trail by 4-0 after the foursomes, but mustered an emphatic response during the fourballs, reducing the deficit to 5-3 by the end of day one in Minnesota. Both Americans missed the fairway on the par-5 16th.

Rory McIlroy was left red faced yesterday as a heckler sunk a shot that even he couldn’t make. Only Willett and Kaymer failed to fire, unable to take their contest beyond the 14th hole.

Willett, who won his first major title at April’s Masters, received predictable flak from the crowd following the article his brother wrote during the week that labeled United States fans as “imbeciles”.

“We’re back in it”, Garcia said.