SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — The United States took a 6-2 lead for its largest opening-day advantage at the Ryder Cup since 1975.
Teaming with Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas led a U.S. comeback from 3 down in Friday's final fourball match to salvage a tie for a half point against Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland.
Top-ranked Jon Rahm was responsible for 1 1/2 of Europe's two points on opening day. He teamed with Sergio Garcia in the morning for Europe's only win, then with Tyrell Hatton in the afternoon for a draw with Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler.
In the two other afternoon fourball matches, Tony Finau and Harris English defeated Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry 4 and 3, and Dustin Johnson and Xander Schauffele topped Paul Casey and Bernd Wiesberger 2 and 1.
Johnson and Schauffele each won twice, while McIlroy lost two matches in the same day for the first time in his Ryder Cup career.
This marks the biggest lead for the U.S. since it took a 6 1/2-1 1/2 lead in 1975, four years before the rest of Europe joined Great Britain and Ireland in an attempt to make the Ryder Cup more competitive.
Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger finished the morning off for the U.S. team by taking a 2-and-1 win over Lee Westwood and Matt Fitzpatrick.
The strong showing by the U.S. team came before massive crowds at Whistling Straits, almost all of them cheering wildly for the home team.
The U.S. is trying to regain the cup after losing in Paris three years ago.