SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Surely, the temptation was there.
Thomas Bjorn had just watched months of planning and four days of on-site preparation begin to crumble before his eyes. In the span of a critical hour during the opening session at the Ryder Cup, Bjorn’s European squad went from eyeing a 3-1 lead to staring at a 3-1 deficit.
Balls bounced from wood to grass for the Americans and from grass to water for the home team. Putts peeled away at inopportune moments as the momentum became lodged decidedly in the favor of the visitors. Europe’s biggest star couldn’t find a birdie with a shotgun.
And even after Tommy Fleetwood sparked a rally to salvage a point and avoid the opening shutout that sent Darren Clarke’s head spinning two years ago at Hazeltine, Bjorn assuredly humored the notion that his best plan would be to create a new one à la minute heading into a critical set of foursomes matches.
Instead the stoic Dane stuck to his gut and put forth a lineup that eviscerated the defending champs, paving the way for a historic blowout that vaulted the Europeans into the lead after the opening day.
“We’re one team, and did it with all 12 today,” he said. “That was the plan through the whole week. We wanted to get everybody on the golf course today, and we did that.”
Bjorn’s early moves have been equal parts tactical and deliberate. He made an outward display of strength and poise Tuesday morning, when he boasted that he was already “85 percent” confident with his plan for pairings.
“During the week there’s certain things that I can change, but I’m pretty set in my mind where I want to go with this from the beginning,” he said at the time.
He put that plan into motion by pairing a veteran alongside a rookie in each of the Friday morning matches, creating a mix of experience and excitement in a frenzied arena. And while that strategy failed to yield the desired results, Bjorn didn’t waver in the critical few minutes leading into the afternoon session.
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Just as a football coach might script the first 15 plays of the game regardless of result, so too Bjorn put his faith in the planning and thought that created his strategy in the first place.
“I tried to say all week that I trust them as a group. They have a lot of belief in each other, and they are pretty easy to manage,” he said. “They wanted to go out and prove something this afternoon, and that was nice to see. But it says a lot about the group.”
Foursomes tends to be a European strength, including four years ago at Gleneagles when they took seven of eight points in the format. But they have never scored as decisive a win as they did Friday, amid joyous fan songs and chants of “Allez Les Bleus,” sweeping all four foursome points for the first time ever. It was also the first time the Euros swept any team session since 1989, and just the second time either team went 4-for-4 since.
What’s more, none of the matches were even close. Europe led all four at the turn; only Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson got as close as 1 down before losing handily, 4 and 2.
If Gleneagles was a foursomes blowout, this was a beatdown.
“Whenever you look at a board and you see a match that’s blue, it gives you a lift,” said Ian Poulter. “But when you see it up as heavy as that, you know they are obviously playing great golf and enjoying it.”
Bjorn’s careful premeditation didn’t begin when his team touched down in Paris. It extended back to his decision months ago to slot fourball matches first each day, allowing his team to end with its preferred format in the afternoon.
The goal at the time was surely to grow an existing lead. But it also allowed Europe to quickly dig itself out of an early hole, erasing the American advantage in a resounding wave of blue seemingly just as fast as it had been created.
“When you clean sweep, that is something that is pretty special to all those players that are out on that golf course,” Bjorn said. “It seemed like nothing could go wrong. That was kind of the feeling that you got through the day, and through the afternoon.”
When the morning session began to unravel, Bjorn’s biggest question mark suddenly became his best player. Rory McIlroy was expected to guide Thorbjorn Olesen’s debut just as he expertly navigated Thomas Pieters’ at Hazeltine, but early on it was McIlroy who couldn’t get going. The Ulsterman was a shell of his usual self, the only player of the 16 from the morning session not to make a single birdie on his own ball.
McIlroy has never sat a team session since making his Ryder Cup debut in 2010, but for a brief instant the notion had serious merit. He was out of sorts, stuck in the same sort of fog that cost him during the final round of the Tour Championship, and his team needed a spark.
But in the eyes of Bjorn, there were no options to weigh.
“The only thing I say to Rory is, ‘We go again,’ and that’s what we do,” Bjorn said. “It was a bad morning. He didn’t play well, and we go again. You go out there and you bring a different type of game.”
It’s a decision that paid quick dividends when McIlroy and Poulter cruised to an easy afternoon point. But it also served as an example of Bjorn’s commitment to his own process, even when the early returns went awry.
Friday the captain bet on himself, and he left the second-guessing for another day. Then he watched his team validate that choice by flipping the Ryder Cup on its head.
