EUROPE IN NEED OF A COMEBACK FOR THE AGES

Not even Rahm’s heroics can hold off USA

NEVER MIND Whistling Straits. Europe find themselves in dire straits following a humbling opening day without precedent at the 43rd Ryder Cup, where they simply couldn’t cope with this exciting young American team of all the talents.

In the battle of the generations, the plaudits went to the six American rookies who all contributed to the home side’s commanding 6-2 lead — the largest first-day advantage for the United States since continental Europe were invited to the party in 1979.

It was only the second time in the last 40 years — the other was 2008 — that America has won both sessions on day one.

What a contrast the US debutants made to Europe’s veterans as the trio of players aged 44 and over played four matches without troubling the scorers, or even looking like doing so.

It wasn’t just the elder statesmen who struggled either. This was the poorest day of Rory McIlroy’s Ryder Cup career by a long way, and it came with a dispiriting landmark as he lost two matches for the first time on the same day, and both by hefty margins at that. The only full point Europe won all day was the first to be decided, from Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm, who played like the world No 1 in delivering a half-point after lunch with Tyrrell Hatton, who holed a gutsy birdie putt to claw back Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler. The other half-point came in the last match from Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland, but even this small consolation came tinged with disappointment, as they squandered a threehole lead on the back nine. This American extravaganza was played out against a raucous, frenetic backdrop created by 45,000 delirious fans who had set off in the middle of the night in the vast majority of cases to ensure they were in place by dawn’s early light.

How this gifted team rewarded their faith, with some stunning play from dazzling rookies like Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele. Dustin Johnson, the oldest member of the team at 37, delivered two points out of two in the company of the former in the foursomes and the latter after lunch. On the course where he was robbed of the chance of winning the 2010 USPGA Championship by a dubious bunker ruling, this felt like redemption.

DeChambeau chipped in as only he can in the afternoon fourballs, hitting a 417 yard drive at the par five fifth as the wind picked up considerably. He then flicked a wedge to tap-in range for an eagle.

He had three other birdies as well in a classic match against Hatton and Rahm that looked as if it would deliver still worse news for Europe until Hatton’s brilliant salvo at the death. It was the first half-point earned of DeChambeau’s Ryder Cup career.

You have to go all the way back to Ireland in 2006 to find the last time Europe won the first session at the Ryder Cup. From early on it was clear there would be no change to the depressing pattern.

But for Sergio Garcia and Rahm, it would have been a dismal whitewash, as their victory in the top contest was followed by losses in the next three matches by comfortable margins.

That’s seven straight Ryder Cups where the Americans were ahead at lunchtime on the opening day. The difference this time was the second session, so good for Europe in Ryder Cups past, didn’t result in any fightback. They were outclassed from start to finish.

The only bright spot was Garcia and Rahm. Not for the first time in Ryder Cup history, Europe ended a session indebted to Spanish bravura and skill. Add another point to Garcia’s all-time record total.

And a memo to anyone hoping to take on Rahm: don’t get his back up. Up against America’s most celebrated modern pair in Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, this was the match everyone hoped it would be to get this 43rd edition off to a rousing start.

Spieth and Thomas didn’t putt as well as they can but they were still three-under par at the finish. They’d have buried McIlroy and Ian Poulter, for example. It’s hard to compete, however, with a foursomes pair who post six birdies. Garcia displayed his formidable ball-striking skills, while on the greens, Rahm was a man possessed.

The 27-year-old was rightly furious at being overlooked for PGA Tour player of the year honours in favour of Patrick Cantlay. No disrespect to the latter, but when you finish T5, T8, 1st and T3 in the four majors, the verdict of your peers shouldn’t go in favour of a man who missed two halfway cuts in the same blue riband events and failed to notch a single top ten.

Then there’s Sergio. ‘I don’t know what comes over me in the Ryder Cup, it’s like I turn into someone else,’ he told Sportsmail in the build-up.

On the 15th hole, the 41-year-old spiked the American revival in a manner to which they have become accustomed over the past 20-odd years, rolling in a 20ft birdie putt to go three up. Neither Rahm nor Garcia played the shot of the match, mind. Step forward Spieth on the stupendous par three 17th.

There’s no way of doing full justice to Spieth’s breathtaking blow.

Halfway down the vast bank to the left of the green, he was looking up at sky as he struggled for a stance and somehow sent the ball hurtling into the air.

He was so off balance as he completed the shot, his momentum saw him run down the steep slope, avoiding a couple of bunkers as he went, stopping just in time before he entered Lake Michigan.

‘Holy s**t, how did it stop short of the flag?’ the Texan wanted to know when he eventually made it to the green. The ball was 8ft away. Garcia was shaking his head in disbelief that the ball was on the green at all. Rahm made a beeline for Spieth and fist-bumped him.

It was a shame the match ended when Thomas missed the putt for par. The stroke of genius deserved a better outcome. As Paul Azinger said on American television: ‘One of the greatest shots in Ryder Cup history has now become an asterisk.’

Some asterisk, though. It was that sort of day for the Americans where even in a rare defeat they still came up with something memorable.