ROME — The U.S. is falling in Rome.
So far.
The Europeans got off to a dream start in the first session at the 44th Ryder Cup on Friday morning at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, storming to a 4-0 lead after the foursomes (alternate shot) session.
Nearly everything the Europeans did worked and seemingly nothing went the way of the USA.
The Europeans won 22 holes in the foursomes to a mere 10 for the Americans.
The first U.S. pairing to lose was Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 ranked player in the world, and Sam Burns, who was playing in his first Ryder Cup.
They were waxed by Jon Rahm, the world No. 2, and Tyrrell Hatton, 4-and-3.
“We played as confidently as two people can play,’’ Rahm said. “It was a beautiful morning. I told Tyrrell those (elevated) feeling you have (in a Ryder Cup) I had hitting my first warm-up putt at 6:20 in the dark and it got higher from there.
“It’s a different feeling, but if you embrace and enjoy it, it can help you play golf the way we did today.’’
Hatton called Rahm “very positive between shots, great company who’s always right by your side.’’
You could say that first match was a tone-setter for Europe, but the Europeans were setting tones in all four of their matches.
Max Homa and Brian Harman, two U.S. Ryder Cup rookies who were somewhat controversially sent out in the second match considering U.S. captain Zach Johnson left veterans Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas on the sideline for morning session, were similarly dominated by Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg, 4-and-3.
The bloodbath got messier for the Americans when Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka dusted Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa, 2-and-1 to take a 3-0 lead
Then, in the final morning match, the U.S. pairing that was nearly flawless in 2021 at Whistling Straits, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, lost to Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood, 2-and-1 to complete the morning whitewash.
The European anchor of “Fleetwood Mac’’ put a cap on the morning session proceedings, which was a killer for the Americans, who were desperately trying to put something on the board before the morning was finished.
McIlroy’s brilliant iron shot on the par-3 17th set up Fleetwood for a birdie and the final dagger heading into the afternoon.
Considering Cantlay and Schauffele were 2-0 playing together in foursomes two years ago, Johnson had to figure he was going to get some red on the board out of that anchor pairing.
Not to be.
That left the U.S. in DEFCON desperation mode in the afternoon four-ball (best ball) session with hopes of staving off embarrassment.
The afternoon pairings for four-balls begin with Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas playing Hovland and Hatton, Scheffler and Brooks Koepka playing Rahm and Nicolai Hojgaard, Homa and Wyndham Clark playing Justin Rose and Robert MacIntyre and Morikawa and Schauffele playing McIlroy and Matthew Fitzpatrick.