Americans Trail by Four Points after another Disastrous Foursome Performance


After getting to within a point of the Europeans following two wins, a halve and a loss in Saturday morning's fourball (best ball) session, the Americans once again did poorly in the afternoon foursome (alternate shot) format at the 2014 Ryder Cup.

The Yanks lost three matches in the afternoon, and took away only a half-point thanks to a tie. They head into Sunday's 12 singles matches at Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland trailing the Europeans 10-6.

All the Euros need to do on Sunday to retain the Cup is win four points for a total of 14. If they can pull that off, which is quite probable given their imposing lineup, they'll have won the biennial competition six of the past eight and eight of the past 11 times the event has been held.

In the morning fourball session, Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan beat Jamie Donaldson and Lee Westwood 4 and 3. Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth again proved formidable, beating Thomas Bjorn and Martin Kaymer 5 and 3.

Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson won their third point for the Europeans, edging Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar 3 and 2. In the fourth match, Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler got a halve - for the second straight day - against Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy.

The Americans entered Saturday's foursomes in reasonable shape, trailing Europe by a margin of 6½ to 5½.

But things changed in the afternoon, just as they did the day prior. On Friday, the Europeans won three of four foursomes - and halved the other - to take a 5-3 lead into Saturday morning.

They had the same exact performance in the second foursomes session, with Donaldson and Westwood beating Zach Johnson and Kuchar 2 and 1; Garcia and McIlroy getting past Furyk and Mahan 3 and 2; and Victor Dubuisson and Graeme McDowell rolling past Walker and Fowler 5 and 4.

The Americans got a half-point when Spieth and Reed halved their match with Kaymer and Rose.

"It seems like the foursomes is their forte," USA captain Tom Watson admitted during a TV interview.

Still, the American leader believes his squad has a chance in Sunday's singles. "You might think that it's a given that the Europeans are going to win, but I sure as hell don't," Watson said.

"I have a trust in my players that they can get it done," he added. "I have an innate trust. I've gotten to really know them, and they have what it takes. They are just going to have to play better. They know that. They know absolutely what they have to do. We've got to smoke them. We've got to take them out early."

European captain Paul McGinley isn't quite ready to say that the competition is over. "This job is far from finished," he said. "We're in great position, but we've got a lot of work to do tomorrow."

Here are the match-ups in Sunday's singles matches:

Jordan Spieth vs. Graeme McDowell
Patrick Reed vs. Henrik Stenson
Rickie Fowler vs. Rory McIlroy
Hunter Mahan vs. Justin Rose
Phil Mickelson vs. Stephen Gallacher
Bubba Watson vs. Martin Kaymer
Matt Kuchar vs. Thomas Bjorn
Jim Furyk vs. Sergio Garcia
Webb Simpson vs. Ian Poulter
Keegan Bradley vs. Jamie Donaldson
Jimmy Walker vs. Lee Westwood
Zach Johnson vs. Victor Dubuisson

For updated scoring, visit http://www.rydercup.com/usa/scoring?autorefresh=1.