Saturday’s morning session of fourball play has been announced for the 2014 Ryder Cup. The Europeans took a strong 5-3 lead after a very impressive afternoon session of alternate shot play in the opening day of the tournament.
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Jaimie Donaldson and Lee Westwood defeated Matt Kuchar and Jim Furyk 2 and 1. Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson defeated Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan 2 and 1. Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia halved with Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker. Lastly, Victor Dubuisson and Graeme McDowell defeated Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley 3 and 2 to get 3.5 points in the afternoon session. The Americans led 2.5-1.5 after the morning session.
Saturday’s morning session of fourball has been announced and is as follows:
Match 1 (7:35 AM) (Scotland local time): Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose (Europe) vs. Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar (USA)
Match 2 (7:50 AM): Jaimie Donaldson and Lee Westwood (Europe) vs. Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan (USA)
Match 3 (8:05 AM): Thomas Bjorn and Martin Kaymer (Europe) vs. Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth (USA)
Match 4 (8:20 AM): Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter (Europe) vs. Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker (USA)
U.S. Captan Tom Watson decided to swap out Webb Simpson and keep Bubba Watson in and put him with a more grounded, controlled player in Matt Kuchar, which is a very smart move. Jim Furyk played well with Matt Kuchar in Friday’s afternoon session and will be paired with Hunter Mahan who also played well with Zach Johnson in Friday’s afternoon session. Mahan and Furyk is an interesting combination and we’ll see if they can play well against Donaldson and Westwood. Reed and Spieth are a no brainer as they played very well in Friday’s morning session. Fowler and Walker played well in both sessions but ended with two halves, but points are points and they’ll try to get their first win Saturday.
Pairings remained relatively the same for Paul McGinley and Team Europe. Stenson and Rose are 2-0 after Friday and played well and they’ll start of for Europe again. Donaldson and Westwood played very well together in the afternoon and will try their luck in fourball. Bjorn and Kaymer played well, but struggled down the stretch and allowed Fowler and Walker to halve the match with them in the morning on Friday. Poulter and McIlroy are a new pair. The veteran and the young gun is a good approach. Poulter struggled with Gallacher and McIlroy won’t play with Sergio Garcia who he struggled with all day leading to an 0-1-1 Friday record.
Saturday morning is absolutely going to be interesting for both teams with some intriguing match ups.
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