Staff Reporter.
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The United States look set to regain the Ryder Cup after another dominating display on day two at Whistling Straits saw them open a record six-point lead over Europe.
The biggest final-day comeback is four points, achieved by the US at Brookline in 1999 and Europe in 2012 at Medinah, when both sides came from 10-6 down to win.
However, Europe captain Padraig Harrington remains defiant. “It’s still possible,” said the Irishman.
“It’s only half a point more than we won in the singles at Medinah. There’s no doubt that is going to be strong in our minds.
“They have to just go out there and win their own individual match. They have to focus on that and not look at that bigger picture and focus on their individual self.”
US skipper Steve Stricker is trying to eliminate Europe’s ‘Miracle at Medinah’ from his thinking but also said “it’s not over yet”.
“Going into Sunday 11-5 versus 10-6, that’s a big difference in my book,” he added. “I’m not going to bring up Medinah.”
Harrington has picked the mis-firing Rory McIlroy to lead off the singles on Sunday, despite the Northern Irishman having suffered three heavy defeats so far this week.
Trish Johnson, an eight-time Solheim Cup player, said “It’s horrible watching Rory. He seems so out of sorts.”
American celebrations started early
Europe needed a fast start on Saturday if they were to eat into the record four-point advantage opened up by their hosts on day one.
But the morning foursomes was another session in which Europe were as poor on the greens as the Americans were dominant.
Eleven of the 12 American players contributed at least a half-point on Friday, with only Jordan Spieth missing out. However, he and his good friend Justin Thomas were victorious as the US won the session 3-1 to open a 9-3 lead.
Thomas then suddenly appeared on the first tee and gulped down a beer before spraying the rest into the air and slamming the can into the ground, to the delight of the already exuberant American fans in the stands.
It was quite an extraordinary display from Thomas, despite knowing he would be sitting out the afternoon fourballs session.
Rahm and Garcia shine again for Europe
That Europe are not further behind is chiefly down to the efforts of world number one Jon Rahm, who partnered his fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia to victories in both their matches on Saturday and has now won 3½ points this week.
They followed their 3&1 win in the foursomes with a 2&1 triumph in the fourballs, as Garcia, playing in his 10th Ryder Cup, further extended his records of most matches won to 25 and his individual points tally to 28½.
As with the morning session, it was imperative that Europe got off to a fast start in the afternoon.
They did just that and were leading in each of the top three matches after nine holes on an afternoon of tense drama on the shore of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin.
Rahm holed putts of 45 and 27 feet to put Europe three ahead after seven holes but Brooks Koepka pegged them back with birdies on the eighth and 10th.
Another Koepka birdie on the 13th levelled the match but Jordan Spieth, who missed several putts of around 10 feet, was again wayward on the 15th, allowing Rahm to put Europe into a lead they would not relinquish and he rammed in a 29-footer to also win the 16th.
That point came moments after Shane Lowry showed immense courage to hole a 10-foot putt on the 18th to win Europe’s fourth point of the contest.
The Irishman, playing with Tyrrell Hatton, eventually triumphed in a tight contest with Tony Finau and Harris English that became just the fourth to go down the last.
By this point though, Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa, the world numbers two and three, had easily seen off the challenge of McIlroy and Ian Poulter, winning 4&3 in the bottom match.
It was the third heavy defeat of the week for McIlroy, who missed his first Ryder Cup session since making his debut in 2010 when he was left out of the morning foursomes.
For Johnson though, it was a fourth victory of the week from the first four matches – the first American to achieve that since 1975.
That left just one match out on the course, Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland’s titanic battle against Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau. Europe badly needed a win to go into Sunday trailing 10-6 and summon up the spirit of Medinah.
There was never more than one hole in it over the first 13 holes as the momentum swung from Europe to the US and back again.
But DeChambeau rolled in a birdie putt from seven feet to take the 14th, after Fleetwood had missed from 10. Scheffler then knocked in another from 16 feet and a third successive birdie followed on the 16th as the US took Saturday’s final point.
With inputs from BBC Sport.