Ryder Cup: Europe captain Luke Donald lauds team's mental resilience in commanding start

Visitors take lead at Bethpage Park as American team promise to bounce back

Team Europe's Rory McIlroy, left, and Tommy Fleetwood on the first hole of Saturday's morning foursomes matches of the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. AFP

Europe captain Luke Donald was as pleased with a dominant start to the Ryder Cup as he was with how his players handled pressure from the crowd.

Europe secured a 5.5-2.5 lead at Bethpage Black, winning both the foursomes and four-ball sessions over a United States side that included 12 of the world's 23 top-ranked golfers.

The visitors also endured taunts from the New York crowd admirably.

“A lot of mental resilience,” said Donald. “You just look at some of the putts these guys holed when it mattered, it's pretty gratifying for a captain.

“It gets loud, and the guys handled it with absolute class and poise. To be prepared for an away Ryder Cup you have to deal with that. I thought they dealt with it amazing.”

Europe's missed putts and poor tee shots were jeered, but their shot-making kept American supporters subdued for most parts.

Donald said he was unaware of an obscene gesture Rory McIlroy appeared to make leaving the 11th green that was posted on social media.

The captain, however, cautioned against celebrating too much and so soon.

“To create a little bit of history with the three matches and how they were won was great. History is nice to accomplish,” Donald said. “It doesn't mean anything unless we get 14.5 points on Sunday.

“Only thing people remember is who is the winner on Sunday. That's our goal.”

Meanwhile, Keegan Bradley said the US team will not deviate from their plan as they kept seven of their eight players from Friday's foursomes session in the line-up for Saturday morning.

Struggling stars Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau returned to the first tee with Team Europe in control.

Scheffler and DeChambeau – who have combined for six major championships and four of the last eight – went a combined 0-4-0 on Friday.

DeChambeau, who played foursomes with Justin Thomas and lost 4 and 3, was paired up with New York-area native Cameron Young to face Sweden's Ludvig Aberg and England's Matt Fitzpatrick.

Bradley also kept together Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, and Collin Morikawa and Harris English.

Morikawa and English will get another crack at Northern Ireland's McIlroy and England's Tommy Fleetwood after that pair steamrolled them 5 and 4 Friday.

First-time captain Bradley insisted that it's best for the Americans to stick to their plan.

“We're not going to panic and make those sort of mistakes. We're going to stick to what we know,” Bradley said. “We have a lot of confidence in them.”

Scheffler had a day to forget. Playing with J.J. Spaun in fourball, he did not win a hole, missing the fairways at numbers one, two, six, seven and 11 and the green at the par-3 14th. His first birdie didn't come until No15, which john Rahm matched moments later to nullify any faint hope of a comeback.

It was the fourth time a world No1 lost two opening-day Ryder Cup matches. Ian Woosnam (1991) and Tiger Woods (1999, 2002) were the others.

“When you're the number one player in the world, you have a day that maybe it wasn't his best, normally you bounce back. We are not worried about Scottie Scheffler. He's been in great spirits in the team room. He's eager to get back out there tomorrow.”