ROME — The morning foursomes matches could not have gone worse for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, leaving the theme of the afternoon four-ball session all about survival.
The U.S. was drummed by Europe in the alternate-shot format, 4-0, in the morning and was in jeopardy of being run out of Rome before having a chance to enjoy another great meal or two.
In the end, the Americans left Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in life support, losing the afternoon session 2 ½ to 1 ½, meaning they enter Saturday trailing 6 ½ to 1 ½.
Worse yet, in the eight matches played on Friday, the Americans failed to win a single one of them outright.
Their 1 ½ points for the day came on three halved matches, two of which they let get away from them in the afternoon session.
Unlike in the morning, the U.S. stayed close in all of the matches but one — the Rory McIlroy-Matt Fitzpatrick pairing that ambushed Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa, 5-and-3.
That match was essentially over before it began, with McIlroy and Fitzpatrick taking a 6-up lead through the first seven holes thanks to Fitzpatrick making four birdies and an eagle in the first six holes. They would cruise to victory from there.
But the Europeans wanted more and, of course, and they got it.
All three halved matches hurt the Americans in their own way.
Max Homa and Wyndham Clark lost a 2-up lead with two holes to play to be halved by Justin Rose and Robert MacIntyre in the last match on the golf course.
Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth halved their match against Viktor Hovland and Tyrrell Hatton despite leading 2-up with five holes to play.
The third match that was halved in the afternoon was Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka against Jon Rahm and Nicolai Hojgaard, who came to the 18th hole 1-down and salvaged the half-point on a Rahm eagle putt.
The putt, which hit the hole with such pace the ball bounced up in the air and into the hole, gave Europe a commanding 6-1 lead at the time.
Rahm — playing the hero for Europe again already — had three chip-ins on the day, including one for eagle on 16.
Thomas, a controversial captain’s pick, tried to rally the Americans emotionally in the afternoon after he sat for the first session.
When Thomas buried an 8-foot par-save putt on the 15th hole of his four-ball match alongside Spieth against Hovland and Hatton after having to back off and getting jeered by the home crowd, he stared down the spectators, screamed and pumped his fist.
The putt kept the Americans 1-up in the match they had to have, and it was the most passion any U.S. player had outwardly displayed all day.
The problem was, Thomas would miss a makable putt to halve the 16th, sliding it past the hole, leaving that match precariously tied with two holes to play.
Spieth became a late burden for Thomas as he was in his pocket, failing to finish the hole on Nos. 15, 16, 17 and 18, where he hit his approach shot into the water.
With Thomas lying four feet away for birdie on 18, Hovland drained a monster 25-footer for birdie, making Thomas’ putt feel three times it’s actual distance.
Thomas would calmly make the putt to halve the match and give the U.S. its first half-point.
The third match out in the afternoon pitted Homa and Clark, two U.S. Ryder Cup rookies, against Rose and MacIntyre.
Homa and Clark, both members at exclusive Whisper Rock in North Scottsdale, Ariz., where they practiced together last week, controlled most of the match but failed to put it away in the end.
Homa was on the wrong side of a lopsided loss alongside Brian Harman in the morning.
For Clark, the reigning U.S. Open champion, it was his first career Ryder Cup match.
He failed to make a hole-tying par putt on the 15th, but drove the green on the par-4 16th and won the hole with birdie to go back to 2-up with two to play.
The Whisper Rock boys then lost the 17th hole, heading to 18 clinging to a 1-up lead and lost 18 thanks to a 10-foot birdie putt from Rose.
In the morning matches, none of the four made it to 18.
In the afternoon, three of the four got to the final hole, with the U.S. hanging on for dear life.
In the end, the American team barely has a pulse entering the weekend.