FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – There was a wonderful moment Saturday evening as the sun disappeared behind the clouds and the New York State Police had broken up a fight in the stands when Rory McIlroy, who had been pelted with insults all day, shared a long and teary embrace with his wife, Erika.
The pair has been through a lot over the last few years, and the brunt of the insults were pointedly about their marriage (cat calls about women who were not his wife, other comments were homophobic per a report from Golf Digest), but there was Erika – who had to leave the inside-the-ropes scene after her husband made the turn, ready for a deserved end-of-a-long-day hug with her husband.
They held each other tight, kissed, and said they loved each other.
There is more to life than golf, and this moment behind the 18th green at Bethpage Black was an important reminder of that.
McIlroy had a long day – physically and emotionally. But he also had a wonderful day. He went 2-0 – winning alongside Shane Lowry in the afternoon, 2-up, and with Tommy Fleetwood in the morning 3 and 2.
McIlroy has helped lead the European side to an 11.5-4.5 advantage, and if history tells us anything, that’s an insurmountable lead. This one is over.
No team in the current team format has ever held such a wide lead heading into the final day. In fact, the largest comeback in Ryder Cup history was just four points (which has happened twice).
“When you play an away Ryder Cup, it’s really, really challenging,” McIlroy said. “People can be their own judge of whether they took it too far or not. I’m just proud of us for being able to win today with what we had to go through.”
McIlroy heads into Sunday — where he will go up against Scottie Scheffler in singles
— with a 3-0-1 record but was quick to heap praise on Lowry, his long-time pal, partner, and at times through Saturday, bodyguard. There were upwards of two dozen police officers with the group, and the comments were inappropriate and also ill-timed, which resulted in Lowry — at one point per a video posted to social media — having to be physically held back as he attempted to get a fan thrown out.
An Irish reporter following his countrymen through the day described the comments from Bethpage Saturday as some that “crossed lines of human acceptability and sporting integrity.”
“That's what we wanted to do. I'm so proud of this guy. He was with me… he was there for me all day,” McIlroy said. “I'm drained, to say the least, and he dug in big time when he had to.”
After the morning, Europe became the first team to win each of the first three sessions of a Ryder Cup on foreign soil. And the deficit of 8.5-3.5 after the morning? No team has ever come back from depths like that.
“It was intense,” Lowry said of his afternoon game with McIlroy, where the duo birdied each of their final five holes. “It was like something I've never experienced. But this is what I live for. This is it.”
The United States has received no help from its two biggest alphas in Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau, who have gone a combined 1-7. Scheffler on his own is 0-4, the first American in the history of the competition to start with four straight losses. Scheffler and DeChambeau were paired together Saturday afternoon to attempt to find a spark for the American side, but they instead got boat-raced by Fleetwood and Justin Rose. Fleetwood became the first player in Ryder Cup history to start 4-0 at two separate competitions. Fleetwood’s four points through two days nearly equalled the whole of Team USA’s 4.5.
“I said it at the beginning of week, we came here to try and win, to try and create history,” captain Luke Donald said. “We know it was going to be a very difficult task, looking at past Ryder Cups, away Ryder Cups. Three of the last four haven't been very close.
“I didn't expect to have as big a lead like this. A lot of things have gone well for us.”
It's simple, really. The European side has just outplayed and outclassed the Americans all the way around. This is the first time ever that the Europeans have won all four sessions on the road.
The European team was built for this – and it helps they are all playing out of their minds. Even when the Americans were playing well, Europe had heavyweight punches to match. In the afternoon, Team USA was 31 under as a team, but Europe was 34 under.
So, we head into Sunday with Europe needing just 3.5 out of a possible 12 points in order to retain the Ryder Cup.
“They are playing unbelievable golf,” Xander Schauffele said. “The course is set up relatively easy, and they're making a lot of birdies and we're not. They're just beating us flat out.”
Even with everything being said outside the ropes, inside the ropes, the European side — led by McIlroy — has just done everything right.
Earlier Saturday morning when McIlroy got to the 16th hole, he had to back off his approach shot with a poorly timed comment from the gallery. McIlroy shot back, saying, “Guys, shut the (expletive) up.” He then hit it to three feet.
