Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg broke the record for the biggest foursomes win in Ryder Cup history with a 9 and 7 thrashing of the USA’s Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka for Europe on Saturday.
The hosts were given a remarkable start in their bid to extend the five-point lead they built on Friday, as the Scandinavian pair beat the previous record set in 1979.
Europe eventually ended the session with a massive 9.5-2.5 advantage as they aim to regain the trophy after suffering a 19-9 thrashing at Whistling Straits two years ago.
Hovland and Aberg won nine of the 11 holes played, with the other two halved in the alternate shot format.
The previous biggest win in Ryder Cup foursomes was Americans Tom Kite and Hale Irwin’s 7 and 6 success against Ken Brown and Des Smyth 44 years ago.
Aberg, 23, continues to impress, despite becoming the first golfer to be selected for a Ryder Cup without ever playing in a major championship, having only turned professional in June.
“He (Aberg) 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,” said world number four Hovland.
“Obviously we make a strong team. Regardless, I think we could have met a lot of guys and we would have been tough to beat today.
“Obviously Scottie and Brooks weren’t on top of their game today and that’s how 9 and 7 came to be.”
USA skipper Zach Johnson would have expected his star pairing of world number one Scheffler and five-time major champion Koepka to help kickstart a fightback after a disastrous first day in which the visitors slipped 6.5-1.5 behind.
Instead, they started off by playing the first three holes in five over par and fell four-down through four holes.
Norway’s Hovland and Swede Aberg made it three straight birdies to extend a lead which became 7-up through the first nine.
The match finished in miserable fashion for Scheffler and Koepka as they hacked multiple shots over the 11th green before an inevitable concession.
“I don’t even know what to say and where to start but obviously (an) unbelievable day,” said Aberg.
“But most importantly, we enjoyed it. We had fun and felt the crowd support which was really important for us.”
The duo will aim to make it three wins from as many matches as a pairing when they take on Sam Burns and Collin Morikawa in Saturday afternoon’s opening fourballs match.
Scheffler and Koepka will be watching from the sidelines after being left out by Johnson.
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