Europe's Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg Deliver Saturday Beatdown at Ryder Cup
ROME — PGA champion Brooks Koepka and current world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler were outclassed and outplayed in their morning foursomes match on Saturday against Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland, losing in historic fashion.
The 9 and 7 loss, the worst margin of defeat in any 18-hole match in Ryder Cup history, was totally dominated by a Scandinavian team that put the pedal to the floor early, winning the first four hole and never letting up with seven birdies against a USA team that was over par in six of the 11 holes played.
Europe's Ludvig Aberg, right, and partner Viktor Hovland were dominant Saturday morning in a 9 and 7 win.
Gregorio Borgia/AP
“We're meeting two strong guys, No. 1 in the world and a five-time major champ, so we tried to not give them anything, and we played really, really solid,” said Hovland after winning his second match, giving him 2.5 points overall in three sessions. “Obviously we didn't meet a sharp Scottie and Brooks, but we played some really nice golf today.”
Three U.S. duos previously won 7 and 6 in foursomes: Tom Kite/Hale Irwin over Ken Brown/Des Smyth in 1979, Mark O’Meara/Paul Azinger over Nick Faldo/David Gilford in 1991 and Keegan Bradley/Phil Mickelson over Luke Donald/Lee Westwood 2012.
The victory by the Scandinavians helped boost the European lead to 9½–2½, a considerable hole for the Americans to climb out of.
The Scandinavian duo went back out on the course in the afternoon fourball matches with hopes of Aberg earning his third Ryder Cup point and Hovland boosting his total haul to 3½.
“I don't think we could have done a whole lot better,” Hovland said. ”It's nice to kind of speak our own language and we understand each other. Obviously same humor, same culture. He's a stud. He doesn't miss a shot, so it's easy when I'm playing well and he's playing well, and we are just feeding off of each other."