FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — The two best players in the world will go face to face on Sunday when Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy play singles at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
The showdown will be the fourth of 12 matches in the final session and tee off at 12:35 p.m. local time.
Team Europe holds an overwhelming 11 1/2-4 1/2 lead after two days of the competition. As defending champions, the Europeans need just 2 1/2 more points to retain the Ryder Cup and three more to win outright.
The United States must score an improbable 10 points of the available 12 to pull off the largest comeback in modern Ryder Cup history.
Scheffler became the first player under the Cup’s current format to play the first four sessions and lose all four. His counterpart from Northern Ireland, meanwhile, is 3-0-1 while facing constant jeers and verbal abuse, including when standing over his ball.
The United States will aim to start strong with Cameron Young, who will have the home crowd fired up as a fellow New York-area native. Young won his first two matches in his Ryder Cup debut, one of the few bright spots for the hosts this year. He’ll oppose Englishman Justin Rose.
Other highlight matchups include Justin Thomas vs. England’s Tommy Fleetwood (Match 2), Bryson DeChambeau vs. England’s Matt Fitzpatrick (Match 3) and Xander Schauffele vs. Spain’s Jon Rahm (Match 6).
The final match will feature Harris English against Norway’s Viktor Hovland, unless Hovland is a late scratch due to a neck injury he aggravated during morning foursomes. Team Europe captain Luke Donald said Hovland would undergo an MRI on Saturday night.
If Hovland cannot play, the U.S. will remove one of its players whose name Keegan Bradley will place in a sealed envelope. That match would then go down as a tie and 11 matches will be played.
Sunday tee times (USA vs. EUR, all times ET):
Cameron Young vs. Justin Rose, 12:02 p.m.
Justin Thomas vs. Tommy Fleetwood, 12:13 p.m.
Bryson DeChambeau vs. Matt Fitzpatrick, 12:24 p.m.
Scottie Scheffler vs. Rory McIlroy, 12:35 p.m.
Patrick Cantlay vs. Ludvig Aberg, 12:46 p.m.
Xander Schauffele vs. Jon Rahm, 12:57 p.m.
J.J. Spaun vs. Sepp Straka, 1:08 p.m.
Russell Henley vs. Shane Lowry, 1:19 p.m.
Ben Griffin vs. Rasmus Hojgaard, 1:30 p.m.
Collin Morikawa vs. Tyrrell Hatton, 1:41 p.m.
Sam Burns vs. Robert MacIntyre, 1:52 p.m.
Harris English vs. Viktor Hovland, 2:03 p.m.
–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media
