ROME — Brooks Koepka, after he and Scottie Scheffler were tied by Jon Rahm and Nicolai Hojgaard in their afternoon four-ball match, took a veiled shot at Rahm’s temper.
“I mean, I want to hit a board and pout just like Jon Rahm did, but, you know, it is what it is,’’ Koepka said, clearly frustrated that he and Scheffler failed to secure a full point thanks to Rahm eagling two of the last three holes to halve the match. “Act like a child. But we’re adults. We move on.”
The context of Koepka’s quote was unknown, because his comment came in a post-round TV greenside interview and the interviewer never asked a follow-up question. Koepka wasn’t available to reporters afterward.
It’s possible Koepka was referring to Rahm, an emotional player, hitting a board in frustration at the U.S. Open in Los Angeles.
“Jon’s a passionate person, but I didn’t see him acting any other way [on Friday],” European captain Luke Donald said after the matches.
When the Koepka comments were read to U.S. captain Zach Johnson, he said, “I don’t know what that’s referring to.”
“I’m sure Brooks is frustrated, like all 12 of us, 18 of us are, frustrated, with today and the result,” Johnson added.
Johnson cryptically referred to “some unforeseen things that we’ve had to navigate around, which is really unfortunate, in the sense of health.’’
“It’s not an excuse, because we have depth, but I’ll just say, I’m grateful we have a team doctor,’’ Johnson went on without elaborating much. “We’re just fighting things, I mean, internally. It’s kind of passed around a little bit, caddies, players. But it’s nothing more than that. Guys are fighting and playing regardless.
“We have got some congestion and some just signs of things that are unfortunate.
It’s one of those where sometimes the energy is probably a little low, but the ability and desire to go out and play is still there.
That’s what we are weighing.
Every one of them still wants to play every match, which is encouraging.”
There’s been speculation and criticism from some that only three of the U.S. players played recently before the Ryder Cup and the rest hadn’t played since the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship.
Meanwhile, most of the European players played their way into the week to stay sharp.
Johnson didn’t wholly agree with that theory, saying, “Yeah, we did look at some of that, those notions. You can hash it out a number of different ways. We’ve seen success when you do play into big tournaments, whether it’s a major or a Ryder Cup or whatever. We’ve also looked at and found success with a lot of rest off.
“There’s something to be said about rest and recovery and preparation, too. I don’t know if it’s fair to go one way or the other on that. It’s too subjective.”
Rahm revealed afterward that Hojgaard, competing in his first Ryder Cup, asked Rahm to channel his inner Seve Ballesteros on the 18th hole as he stared at the eagle putt he would make to halve the match.
“I’ve got to give Nicolai props because over here on 18, he gave me the freedom to basically go at it, and he told me to hit a putt, try to make it, and he said, ‘What would Seve do? Do it for Seve,’ ’’ said Rahm, who holds his late fellow Spanish legend as his idol. “I don’t know if [Ballesteros] would have quite made it like that, but I’m sure glad that it went in.”
Rahm was referring to his putt, which hit the hole so hard that it popped in the air and fell into the hole.
Matthew Fitzpatrick entered this Ryder Cup, the third of his career, with an 0-5 record and never having played a four-ball match.
He won his four-ball match with Rory McIlroy after carding a 6-under-par start through the first six holes on Friday afternoon, to register his first career point.
Thanks to Fitzpatrick, he and McIlroy took a 6-up lead through the first seven holes against Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele.
“For me personally, it’s been one of the greatest days I’ve ever had on a golf course,” Fitzpatrick said. “From the moment I knew I was partner with this man, and to get off to the start we did, I could not be happier.”
McIlroy joked that, “For the first nine holes, I was trying to hang onto this man’s coattails.”