Ryder Cup: Sunday Tee Times / Pairings

Ryder Cup: Sunday Tee Times for the 12 singles matches as Europe take a four point lead in to the final day

Europe need 4.5 points to win the Ryder Cup after taking a 10 – 6 lead in to Sunday’s singles matches, while the U.S.A will need to win eight points in the 12 matches to retain it. 

But European Captain Thomas Bjorn is remaining wary about the big task the American side have of overturning the defecit. It may be unlikely but it’s been done before, as Captain Bjorn is well aware, once by the American team on home soil in 1999 at Brookline, and once by the European’s – at Medinah in 2012. 

“We’ve got to take all that in, and you look at Brookline, Medinah, plenty of examples of these score lines not meaning a lot until you get to singles,” Bjorn said after the end of Saturday’s matches. “Just keep going. Keep going hard, keep going with what we’ve got, and you know, I’ve seen too many times what the singles does.

“We need every single man on the golf course to do their bit, and we’ve got to get out there and really, really, really play hard and be determined to win this back.”

Speaking about his pairings, Bjorn said it came out of conversations with his players. 

“Pairings came out of long conversations with them and relationship they’ve built. They wanted to do this. Never been any red flags from anyone. They have to refocus to be on their own tomorrow.”

The Pairings/Timings (BST)

11.05am: Rory McIlroy vs Justin Thomas
11.17am: Paul Casey vs Brooks Koepka
11.29am: Justin Rose vs Webb Simpson
11.41am: Jon Rahm vs Tiger Woods
11.53am: Tommy Fleetwood vs Tony Finau
12.05pm: Ian Poulter vs Dustin Johnson
12.17pm: Thorbjorn Olesen vs Jordan Spieth
12.29pm: Sergio Garcia vs Rickie Fowler
12.41pm: Francesco Molinari vs Phil Mickelson
12.53pm: Tyrrell Hatton vs Patrick Reed 
1.05pm: Henrik Stenson vs Bubba Watson
1.17pm: Alex Noren vs Bryson DeChambeau

So how do they match up? 

11.05am: Rory McIlroy vs Justin Thomas 

Despite a difficult time for the USA, Justin Thomas has had a great debut alongside Jordan Spieth and will have a lot of confidence. He is 3-1-0 in his first Ryder Cup, while Rory is 2-2-0 in this year’s contest. In four Ryder Cup appearances McIlroy has gone 2-1-1 in singles. We’re expecting this to be a big tussle between two of the World’s best. 

11.17am: Paul Casey vs Brooks Koepka

Paul Casey has only played two matches so far in his first return to Ryder Cup in 10 years, playing phenomenally well with Hatton to lose one fourball match and win another. He’s had six birdies in both of his matches so far and will come out fighting. Brooks wrestled a point with Finau on Friday morning but has gone 0-2-0 since, although he the three-time major champion hit some seriously good shots on Saturday afternoon. A tight contest expected here. 

11.29am: Justin Rose vs Webb Simpson

Rose has gone 2-1-0 in this Ryder Cup, having won twice with Henrik Stenson and narrowly losing with Rahm on Friday morning after being in control most of the match. Has a 2-1-1 record in singles. Simpson lost his match on Friday but holed a lot of putts on Saturday afternoon to win his match with Bubba convincingly against Garcia and Noren, and we think he’ll give Rose a challenge, though in two editions he has a singles record of 0-1-1. 

11.41am: Jon Rahm vs Tiger Woods

Neither player has won a point in this edition of the Ryder Cup so far and will be desperate to make this one count. Both players made four birdies across their two fourball matches, but Tiger suffered a third defeat playing foursomes with Bryson DeChambeau. Rahm is a rookie though, and Tiger’s singles record is 4-1-2. 

11.53am: Tommy Fleetwood vs Tony Finau

Rookie vs Rookie. Fleetwood has a chance to become the first European ever to win all five points in a Ryder Cup, and first as a rookie. He’s riding the crest of a wave having partnered Molinari for 4/4 while Finau has played twice with Brooks Koepka in fourballs, going 1-1-0 as a partnership. Fleetwood seems to have the momentum and has course experience advantage, but Finau is well rested. 

12.05pm: Ian Poulter vs Dustin Johnson

This feels like a big match. Neither DJ or Poulter have had the Ryder Cup they were hoping for, with DJ going 1-3-0 and Poulter going 1-2-0. Neither have ever lost a singles match in the Ryder Cup: DJ has gone 3-0-0, while Poulter has gone 4-0-1. 

12.17pm: Thorbjorn Olesen vs Jordan Spieth

Olesen played and lost with McIlroy in the first fourballs match but hasn’t teed up since, while Jordan Spieth has claimed 3 points from 4 matches with Justin Thomas. Spieth has been playing well and holing putts, but the silver lining for Olesen here is that he knows the course well, and Spieth has never won a singles match in either Ryder or President’s Cup competition, 0-2-0 in Ryder Cup. 

12.29pm: Sergio Garcia vs Rickie Fowler

Sergio Garcia has had a mixed Ryder Cup, winning in emphatic fashion with Alex Noren on Friday afternoon and with Rory McIlroy on Saturday morning, before losing with Noren in the Saturday foursomes. If he wins he’ll become the highest points scorer in Ryder Cup history. He sits at 24.5, 0.5 points behind Nick Faldo. Fowler’s record is also mixed, claiming a point with DJ on Friday morning and losing the next two. Garcia is 3-4-1 in singles, and Fowler is 1-1-1. 

12.41pm: Francesco Molinari vs Phil Mickelson

This feels like a bit of a one sided contest. Phil played terribly on Friday and hasn’t teed up since, while Molinari has won 4 points so far in this Ryder Cup with Tommy Fleetwood. Molinari has gone 0-1-1 in singles in 2 outings and Phil has gone 5-5-1, but the Open Champion also hadn’t won a full Ryder Cup point before this year either. 

12.53pm: Tyrrell Hatton vs Patrick Reed 

Could be an interesting one, but so far this Ryder Cup Hatton has looked the more threatening player of the two. Captain America’s partnership with Woods ended in a 2-0-0 defeat, while Hatton partnered Casey twice with one win and one loss, but the pair were a combined eight-under and nine-under in those pairings (admittedly, mostly through Casey birdies). Hatton is a rookie while Reed has gone 2-0-0, but he’ll need to find a few more fairways for that winning streak to continue. This feels quite well matched. 

1.05pm: Henrik Stenson vs Bubba Watson

Both players have only been seen in the foursomes matches so far, with Stenson combining with Rose for two wins and Watson losing one and winning on Saturday with Simpson. Expecting this to be a good battle, but Watson has never won a singles match in the Ryder Cup (0-3-0), while Stenson’s record is a little nicer (2-2-0).

1.17pm: Alex Noren vs Bryson DeChambeau

The second rookie battle of the Ryder Cup singles comes down to the last match. Noren didn’t have a good day on Saturday on his way to a foursomes loss, but he is the 2017 champion on this course and did win convincingly with Garcia on Friday. DeChambeau on the other hand has lost both of his debut matches alongside Mickelson and Woods, and will need to recapture the form that saw him win two FedEx Cup playoff events. If it comes this far, DeChambeau will have his work cut out.