The 2023 Ryder Cup couldn’t have got off to a better start for Luke Donald and his European team.
All four of his morning foursomes partnerships returned points to sweep the session 4-0, where USA never led a match during any point of the morning as Europe stormed out of the blocks.
The ‘Fleetwood Mac’ pairing of Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy went out in the final match and secured their point and the whitewash thanks to a sensational iron shot from McIlroy on the par 3 17th.
It was after that victory that McIlroy revealed Team Europe had been playing three-hole matches during the practice rounds this week, which he said captain Donald “drilled into us” to help with fast starts.
“It’s been an unbelievable session. We switched the format this year to go foursomes first because statistically that’s our better session. And all week, all we’ve been talking about is getting off to fast starts,” McIlroy said.
“Playing three-hole matches in practise, three holes, go again, three holes, go again, something that Luke’s drilled into us. We were ready to go from the first tee shot as obviously as you can see in how everyone played.”
Tommy Fleetwood was later asked about Europe’s three-hole matches, citing that the statistics say a “large percentage” of matches are won from early leads.
“That was something we just added into the practice rounds this week,” Fleetwood explained.
“Everybody that was playing together, we just played some three-hole matches. Look, there’s statistics to say the guys that go up early, there’s a large percentage of wins.
“Having said that, I think it’s all well and good thinking that and it’s great when you do get up, but it’s 18 holes of golf, and I think we are all very ready as well to when we have to fight and battle it out and come from down if we have to.
“But yeah, like today, it was sort of I guess the perfect execution of a plan where everybody got going early, and nobody let up. So it was great to see like the work that Luke and the vice captains and the players have put in and just have it pay off.”
It was clearly a good tactic from Donald, who got his morning pairings spot on to build a huge lead in the opening session.
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