Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton put the first point on the board for Team Europe with a relatively easy 4-and-3 victory over world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns.
“We played as confident as two people can play,” Rahm said, “and it was a beautiful one.”
Rahm and Hatton made four birdies and an eagle in the first 12 holes and were bogey-free for the 15 holes they played in the foursomes format. The U.S. side, in contrast, managed just one birdie.
Scheffler and Burns are good friends, who paired together last year at the Presidents Cup, but they lacked chemistry on Friday morning and are now 0-3-1 as a team between two Cups.
“I don’t care if they’re friends, they need to split them up,” former Ryder Cupper Hunter Mahan said on the Sky Sports broadcast.
Rahm gave the Euros an early lead with a chip-in birdie at the third hole and later chipped in again at the 10th hole for par, which tied the hole and thwarted any momentum for the U.S. side. The Euros won the 11th too, and made a 13-foot eagle at the par-5 12th to pull ahead 4 up and secure the first point.
“Any time we needed the right shot to change the momentum, we did,” Rahm said. “You know, that’s the key in match play, right, just keep hitting the right shots at the right time.”
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