Ryder Cup: Day one winners and losers

The Europeans were the clear winners of day one of the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles Resort in Scotland as they walked away with a 5-3 lead after a very impressive afternoon session where they won three of four and halved one match. The Americans were impressive in the first session, but some ugly play and bad coaching decisions plagued the U.S. Friday. Here are the day one winners and losers.

Winners:

U.S. Rookies: U.S. Ryder Cup rookies Jordan Spieth were extremely impressive in their morning session match. Tom Watson made a ballsy move to play the two young guns together and they got the job done against Ian Poulter and Stephen Gallacher, winning 5 and 4. The pair of rookies was 6-up through 11 holes and then won in 14. The pair lobbied to play in the afternoon session, but they weren’t given the opportunity. Too bad, the score might be 4-4 right now.

Stenson and Rose: European players Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose dominated both their matches Friday. They started against Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson and took care of them easily, moving on to a 5 and 4 victory. In their afternoon match, they played Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan, who played very well. Stenson and Rose moved on to a 2 and 1 victory. They’ll definitely be paired tomorrow and will most likely play in both sessions once again. The No. 5 and 6 players in the world make a great pair and have dominated so far.

Veteran/Rookie European Duos: With exception to Ian Poulter and Stephen Gallacher who lost 5 and 4, the two other veteran/rookie European duos were very impressive Friday. Lee Westwood and Jaimie Donaldson were very impressive 2 up win against Matt Kuchar and Jim Furyk in an impressive alternate shot match where they went 4-under par. Graeme McDowell and Victor Dubuisson were paired and played against Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley in the afternoon alternate shot. While McDowell and Dubuisson didn’t play amazing, they played well and kept composure as the temperatures dropped and winds picked up and were able to get a key 3 and 2 win for the Europeans to take a 5-3 lead over the U.S.

Losers:

Tom Watson: Tom Watson made a good call but also a couple of key bad calls in Friday’s match lineups. The first bad call I saw was playing Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson together. Simpson was a captain’s pick, who had not played well in the PGA Tour season since winning the first event in Oct. of last year. Bubba is a long, uncontrolled hitter that needs someone with good skill and control. I felt that Jim Furyk or Matt Kuchar or even Phil Mickelson would have been a great pair for Bubba. Tom Watson made a great call when pairing up the 21 year old Jordan Speith and 24 year old Patrick Reed as the U.S. young guns, but made a bad call not to play them in the afternoon session after they defeated Ian Poulter and Stephen Gallacher 5 and 4 in 14 holes. Instead, Tom Watson played Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley who played a very inconsistent morning round, but got the job done beating Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia 1 up in 18 holes. Phil and Keegan were given almost no rest and were gassed five holes into the second match and it showed. Spieth and Reed were given plenty of rest and were ready to play. Hopefully Watson doesn’t make that mistake again.

Sergio/Rory: Sergio and Rory did not play well, and definitely not as well as the world No. 1 and world No. 3 should play especially against lesser opponents. McIlroy and Garcia struggled against Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley who were very inconsistent in their first round and should’ve been a relatively easy victory for players of their caliber. They weren’t much more impressive in their afternoon match against Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker. They were down most of the match and put together and amazing comeback on the 17th and 18th holes to halve the match, but they still hit just 3 of 14 fairways and didn’t perform. I don’t expect the two to play together tomorrow.

All things Webb Simpson: Webb Simpson, a captain’s pick, did not perform well during the regular season of the PGA Tour and lobbied his way onto the Ryder Cup team, somehow. He showed why he didn’t belong on Friday with a disappoiting performance along with Bubba Watson where they lost 5 and 4 to Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose. Right away, Simpson’s day was not very good after he pop-flied his first tee shot and it barely made the front of the faiway.

Along with that, the announcer mistakingly announced Simpson as Bubba Watson. Webb was just destined for a bad day.

More on FanSided.com

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