Team USA Were Undercooked Coming Into 2023 Ryder Cup - And It Showed

Team Europe secured their first-ever clean sweep in the morning session of a Ryder Cup at Marco Simone thanks to some lights-out play from the eight men in blue.

Almost every putt seemed to drop for Luke Donald’s side in the fiercest of white-hot starts while Zach Johnson’s initial octet were having tremendous trouble finding the bottom of the cup with any regularity.

The first two pairings of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, plus Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg, bagged 4&3 successes over a quartet of Americans who - with the exception of Max Homa who took part in the recent Fortinet Championship - had not played competitive golf for over a month.

Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns and Brian Harman’s last outing was the Tour Championship at East Lake - an event which took place in Atlanta during the latter part of August.

Meanwhile, Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka earned a 2&1 win over Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa before Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood squeezed out a 2&1 victory against Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. None of the US quartet here had played since Georgia, either.

Conversely, all 12 of the European team played - and made the cut - at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in mid-September as part of their preparations for Italy.

With the exception of Brooks Koepka, all of Team USA could have likely played the DP World Tour’s flagship event at Wentworth had they wanted to, but none chose to - causing some criticism from fellow American, Billy Horschel.

And in the available DP World Tour events either side of the BMW PGA Championship, Aberg lifted the European Masters title as Matt Fitzpatrick and Nicolai Hojgaard finished in the top five, McIlroy took part in the Irish Open alongside Team Europe captain, Donald, and Robert MacIntyre teed it up at last week’s Open de France.

Back onto the other side of the coin, only three of Team USA’s dozen had felt the competitive juices flowing since the season ending race for the FedEx Cup. Justin Thomas featured alongside Homa at the Fortinet on the PGA Tour while Koepka played in last week’s LIV Golf Chicago event. Everyone on Team USA - aside from Koepka - was eligible to play in Arizona as well.

It was, then, perhaps no coincidence that as the USA fought back to restore some pride in the afternoon fourballs session, Thomas and Koepka were two of the visitors' clear stand-out players along with Wyndham Clark.

But despite the best efforts of that trio, heroic play from Rahm, Hojgaard, Hovland, Hatton, Rose, MacIntyre, McIlroy, and Fitzpatrick pushed the final score on Friday to 6.5-1.5 in favour of the Europeans.

In the build up to this week’s clash of the titans, Clark argued his side might benefit from starting the fresher as the Europeans begin to tire at the end of the week.

He said: “I think the European team, it's great that they got to play, but I also think they might be maybe a little mentally fatigued as this week goes on.

"This is obviously a very intense environment and mentally challenging, and then also you put in a pretty physically demanding golf course being so hilly and up and down that maybe come Sunday they might be leaking oil and we'll be fresh."

But speaking on Sky Sports at the end of Friday's play, 1999 Ryder Cupper Andrew Coltart called it "a disgrace" that the US felt the best way to prepare for a Ryder Cup was to take several weeks away from competitive action.

Coltart said: "I have a massive question, and Zach Johnson is going to get hit with this right now - who on earth, in their right mind, thinks the best way to prepare for a Ryder Cup is to take five weeks off? Nine of the 12 American players took five weeks off. That's disgraceful."

Whether Team USA battles back to lift a first Ryder Cup trophy in 30 years or not, starting 6.5-1.5 down was clearly never a situation Johnson’s men wanted to be in.

It could have been that the captain’s foursomes selections let him down or the players chosen were not match sharp, but whatever the reason for the USA’s slow start, the Americans must produce their own 'Miracle of Medinah' or face the prospect of another four years before getting another crack at re-writing history.