Interesting enough first day, even if the standard of play was fairly underwhelming.
The play from many players in the foursomes was pathetic - I don't think Watson and Simpson managed a birdie between them - aside from a couple of decent pairs. Though one could argue that even those decent performances came when playing against shit, so the pressure wasn't really on.
The standard improved a bit in the afternoon, but an awful lot of the good play was recovery shots, rather than good, controlled golf setting up birdie chances.
Normally these things basically come down to being a putting contest.
On the basis of today's play, this Ryder Cup could be decided by who manages to actually get tee shots on the fairway to give themselves a solid basis to attack a hole.
The lack of accuracy of the tee was the most striking aspect of today's play - and it extended to players who are known for their driving ability.
The rough is too thick and wet to score from.
There isn't even an excuse for missing so many fairways. By professional standards, this is not a course with narrow fairways. There are some holes where they get very narrow, but that only tends to be to make the longest hitters in the field think twice about smashing the ball as far as they can. If these guys consistently hit it 290 yards of the tee, they'd find pretty generous landing areas.
Both captains have made some pretty dodgy calls on pairings (McGinley playing Poulter-Gallagher in the morning and Watson not playing Reed-Spieth in the afternoon) that will be brought up and held against them if their team ends up losing.