2025 Ryder Cup: EUROPE LEADS THE U.S. 11 ½ - 4 ½ HEADING INTO SUNDAY SINGLES

To put things in perspective, should you be someone who dreams big dreams and believes miracles can happen, take note that we’ve already had two occur in this biennial Ryder Cup competition.

One came in 1999 when the Americans scored 8 ½ points in singles at The Country Club to win, 14 ½ - 13 ½.

The other came in 2012 when the Euros returned the favor at Medinah and got 8 ½ singles points for a 14 ½ to 13 ½ shocker.

But here’s the problem. Were the Americans to match those miracles and score 8 ½ points in Sunday’s singles competition, it would leave them at just 13 points when they need 14 ½ to win.

In other words, if ’99 and ’12 were miracles, then what would you call the 10 points this year’s team needs? A miracle deluxe? A super-duper miracle?

Indeed, captain Keegan Bradley’s team is in a most dire situation, trailing 11 ½ to 4 ½, and while the teeth-gnashing and second-guessing will be free game for weeks and months to come, what is fresh on the mind and deserves attention is four sessions and 16 games of utter brilliance by captain Luke Donald’s team.

Because if you thought they were good in taking 5 ½ of 8 points in Friday’s opening sessions, they were even better Saturday. In winning the morning foursomes session and afternoon four-ball action by 3-1 scores, the Europeans gave a clinic in Match Play 101.

That is, they won the most holes, 30-24 over the four foursomes and four four-ball games, and they were in the lead every time you looked up. How dominating were the numbers? This dominating – the Europeans led for 88 holes in eight games Saturday, the U.S. led for just 16.

In two of the morning foursomes (Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton by 3-and-2 over Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay; Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland by 1-up against Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley) the American team never had a lead.

And in the afternoon four-ball, Cantlay and Sam Burns lost on the 18th hole but they, too, never had a lead prior to the 18th.

Whether it was Old Tom telling Young Tom, or Young Tom telling his dad we do not remember, but it went something like this, “you can’t win if you can’t get in the lead.”

Of course, what goes with gaining leads and building on them are magnificent golf moments and the Europeans on Friday had plenty of them, some of them in the most bewildering way for the Americans.

Start with arguably the grandest shot of the day, the par-3 eighth during the morning foursomes when Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton were in a bit of a fix. Schauffele and Cantlay had just birdied the seventh to square the match and Hatton’s wild tee shot left Rahm standing in a bunker, the ball in rough above his feet.

Bogey was likely, an American lead was probable.

So Rahm did the improbable – he holed the shot to go 1 up, a lead they protected with due diligence.

Other snippets which present a semblance of understanding about how we got here:

* Sam Burns drained a 36-foot putt at the par-4 ninth to get the crowd going as it appeared to give his team a chance to get all square. But Matt Fitzpatrick covered that with a 32-foot birdie to keep him and Hatton 1 up.

* In afternoon four-ball, Justin Thomas and Cameron Young were all square with Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry. Thomas hit his tee shot to 6 feet at the par-3 14th; McIlroy hit his to inside of 10 feet. McIlroy made, Thomas missed badly. Now 1-up, the Irishmen birdied each of the next five holes to win 2-up.

* In another afternoon four-ball match, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau were trying to cut the deficit to just one hole against Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose. Scheffler stuffed his third shot to easy birdie range. Only Fleetwood made his from 26 feet to stay 2 up and never were they threatened.

* One last one, and it arguably encapsulates the way things have gone. Fleetwood in that four-ball with Scheffler and Rose stuffed his approach to inside of a foot at the par-4 10th. Scheffler seemed to answer with a shot that would be tight, only it hit the flagstick, caromed back into the rough, and he made par to fall 2-down to Fleetwood’s birdie.

Oh, there was more, so much more, a litany of Europe’s magical putting touch, the emotions of McIlroy and Lowry answering everything the American crowd tossed at them, and the day, both in foursomes and four-ball, simply was owned by Europe.

The American wins came in a morning foursomes match (DeChambeau and Young dispatching Matthew Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Åberg, 4-2) and a late afternoon close one going their way in four-ball (J.J. Span and Schauffele squaring things at the 17th and winning it on 18 against Rahm and Sepp Straka.

But it was too little and likely too late – barring a miracle deluxe. Or would it be a super-duper miracle?

PGA of America Pool Reporter Jim McCabe