Most Ryder Cup Rookies Strong in “Maiden Voyage”

Every Ryder Cup player was a rookie once upon a time. Even the great Seve Ballesteros.

The Ryder Cup rookies on both teams held their own in day one of the matches. As expected, most were partnered with a veteran.  The exception was the US pairing of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele both of whom have had big individual successes this year.

Cantlay won the Memorial, the BWM Championship and FedEx Cup this season, and Schauffele won the gold medal at the Olympics. The two are good friends off the course as well as on it, even taking a mini-vacation in Napa after the Tour Championship. Their  Ryder Cup debut was in the morning session of foursome play, which is alternate shot. They began on a positive note.

“Making birdie on the first, dream start,” Cantlay said after they won their morning foursomes match. “A start like that, I’m really glad we kept our nerve and kept our foot down.”

“Pat’s as calm as they come,” Schauffele said about his partner. “He walked up on the first tee and struck that first tee shot, and all of a sudden all the nerves were gone.”

The Paddy Ice nickname is apparently real if he can do that at the Ryder Cup.

Other rookies had partners who were experienced in Ryder Cup pressure . Both teams have employed this strategy for many Ryder Cups, because every golfer’s first Ryder Cup is a nerve-jangling event. Even those who have played professionally for ten years get first tee jitters at this event.

Veteran Dustin Johnson showed Collin Morikawa the ropes, and the two took down veteran Paul Casey and his rookie partner, Viktor Hovland.

When asked about Morikawa’s rookie status, Johnson replied, “Even though it’s his first Ryder Cup, obviously he doesn’t play like one (a rookie).”

They knew that they were going to play together earlier in the week which both were pleased to hear.  Morikawa said the two had developed a friendship.

“I trust him a lot, and it felt very comfortable,” Morikawa said about the twosome.

“Viktor was an absolute stud,” Paul Casey said about Hovland.

Paul Casey partnered with Viktor Hovland for the Europeans, and they were defeated by the Johnson-Morikawa duo.

“Viktor was an absolute stud,” Casey said after they finished the morning foursomes.

“We just didn’t make enough putts to keep the momentum going,” Hovland said. He said he couldn’t wait to get back out and get a point.  He would not have long to wait as he was partnered with Tommy Fleetwood, one of the 2018 Ryder Cup heroes for Europe, in the afternoon session.

Brooks Koepka, as expected, paired with Daniel Berger.  Both were on the same Florida State golf team. They took down the all-English duo of Lee Westwood and Matt Fitzpatrick.

“I think there’s some part of knowing your partner and understanding the little nuances,” Koepka said about their pairing. He said each knew when the other was comfortable over shots, the kind of shots they like and the kind they don’t.

“I’m more methodical, and he’s more bomb-and-gauge,” Berger noted. “When you pair us up together, we complement each other’s games.”

In the afternoon matches, which were better ball, McIlroy took first-timer Shane Lowry as his partner against Tony Finau and rookie Harris English.  Even though English is 32, this is his first Ryder Cup.

“Man, it was awesome,” English said after his first match. “The atmosphere was incredible. The adrenaline was pumping like no other.”

Finau gave English credit for a momentum building putt at the 8th hole that gave them the lead.

“We never looked back,” Finau said.

McIlroy and Lowry had similar comments about their rounds, both feeling that they hit good shots and got bad breaks, something  that is easy to do on a Pete Dye golf course with severe slopes and strategic bunkering.

Like McIlroy, Paul Casey played morning and afternoon matches. His second was with Bernd Wiesberger, who has eight European Tour titles but was making his first Ryder Cup appearance. Unfortunately for them, they ran up against Dustin Johnson and Xander Schauffele who seemed unstoppable.

Then Bryson DeChambeau took the lead with Scottie Scheffler in his first, but probably not last, Ryder Cup outing. They were up against the formidable pair of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton and the four played to a tie match, each team earning ½ point.

Scheffler said the preparation had allowed him to be relaxed about his Ryder Cup debut. If he had nerves, he didn’t admit it, although he did say he made some mental errors.

“I knew exactly what to expect today,” he said, proving that Captain Steve Stricker’s methods worked so far.

He said that he and DeChambeau had a plan for attacking the golf course and that they stuck to it most of the round.

“It was a hard-fought fight to the end,” DeChambeau noted.

Based on rookie comments, at least from the US team, Stricker’s be prepared philosophy was a success.  The rookies looked and acted like then belonged. No doubt they hit some nervous shots, but the idea was to lower the stress level so each one could play his best golf.

As Cantlay said about playing with Schauffele in their first match, “This being our maiden voyage, it’s helpful having someone that I’m extremely comfortable with.”

After day one, Stricker’s plan, at least, looks like it’s working with the U.S. team ahead 6-2.