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• Europe keep faith with Ryder Cup foursomes pairs

  Luke Donald unsurprisingly kept faith with his history-making foursomes pairings as Europe looked to extend their lead on day two of the Ryder Cup.

  After enjoying an unprecedented clean sweep of the opening session, the home side also staged three dramatic comebacks in the afternoon fourballs to ensure the United States failed to win a match in a day’s play for the first time.

  The resulting five-point lead equalled the largest in the contest’s history, a margin most recently achieved at Oakland Hills in 2004, when US captain Hal Sutton disastrously paired Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson twice on day one.

  Donald’s only change was to send Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood out first, against Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, with Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton switched to match four against Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.

  Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg remained in match two against world number one Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka, with Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka taking on Max Homa and Open champion Brian Harman.

  United States captain Zach Johnson had kept two foursomes pairs together despite the opening whitewash, although his hand had no doubt been forced by an illness spreading through the team.

  “There’s been some unforeseen things that we’ve had to navigate around, which is really unfortunate, in the sense of health,” Johnson said.

  “It’s not an excuse because we have depth but I’ll just say I’m grateful we have a team doctor. Guys are fighting and playing regardless.

  “It’s one of those where sometimes the energy is probably a little low, but the ability and desire to go out and play is still there.”

• Ryder Cup day two: Europe aim to build on record-equalling start

  Europe captain Luke Donald insisted his side would not rest on their laurels after claiming a record-equalling five-point lead on the opening day of the 44th Ryder Cup.

  After enjoying an unprecedented clean sweep of the opening session, the home side also staged three dramatic comebacks in the afternoon fourballs to ensure the United States failed to win a single match in a day for the first time.

  “Unbelievable start, historic day, but we want it to be an historic week so the job is certainly not done,” Donald said.

  “We will all celebrate an amazing day, but we’ll be back with the goal of trying to win tomorrow morning’s session. We’ll be getting our guys focused to be back in the saddle, so to speak.

  “We’ll enjoy the last hour [of play] and the celebration, but once I’m back at the hotel we’ll have a team meeting and we’ll be back to business.”

  Donald was well aware that the United States could easily have ended the day just 5-3 behind as they were ahead in three of the fourballs on the closing stretch, only for Jon Rahm to finish eagle, par, eagle and Viktor Hovland to hole from 20 feet for birdie on the 18th.

  Justin Rose then also birdied the last to ensure the five-point advantage and match Europe’s lead at Oakland Hills in 2004, when US captain Hal Sutton disastrously paired Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson twice on the opening day.

  Shot of the day

  His partner Nicolai Hojgaard had driven the green on the short 16th, but Rahm decided to chip in anyway for an eagle to win the hole.

  Statistic of the day

  Top statistician Justin Ray sums up the historic nature of day one.

  Quote of the day

  Brooks Koepka was not happy with Jon Rahm after the Spaniard finished eagle, par, birdie to snatch half a point.

  Key tee times (all BST)

  0635 Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood v Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth

  0650 Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg v Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka

  0705 Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka v Max Homa and Brian Harman

  0720 Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton v Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele

  Weather forecast

  Saturday and Sunday will feature sunny skies with a few afternoon clouds building up over the mountains along with temperatures near 30 degrees centigrade (85F) each afternoon. No rain is expected through the period.

• What could Friday’s Ryder Cup action mean for the next two days in Rome?

  The United States failed to win a single match as Europe equalled the biggest day-one lead in the modern format of the Ryder Cup.

  Since the Great Britain and Ireland team was expanded to Europe in 1979, a margin of 6 1/2 points to 1 1/2 had only before been achieved in 2004 – and even then, the beaten Americans managed one foursomes win.

  Here, the PA news agency looks at how Friday’s success compares and what it could mean.

  Friday’s results

  Europe won all four of the morning foursomes, only their fourth ever session whitewash with the others coming on Friday afternoons in 1987, 1989 and 2018.

  Another win followed in the afternoon from Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick, 5&3 over Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele, with none of the five home wins reaching the 18th hole.

  When the other games did get there, though, it was to Europe’s benefit – Viktor Hovland’s dead-weight birdie putt halved the top match, Jon Rahm rattled in his second eagle in three holes and Justin Rose brilliantly closed out another half.

  Echoes of 2004

  Europe’s previous 4-0 sessions came after a 2-2 share of the Friday morning in 1987 and overturned 3-1 deficits on the other two occasions.

  That 6-2 margin in 1987 was matched in 1999, Europe winning 2 1/2 points in the Friday morning foursomes and 3 1/2 in the afternoon fourballs, and by the Americans with a pair of 3-1 wins in 2021.

  But the only precedent for a team scoring 6 1/2 points on day one comes from 2004, when Europe won three of the morning fourballs with an additional half-point from Paul McGinley and current captain Luke Donald.

  Chris DiMarco and Jay Haas finally got the USA on the board but Europe won the remaining three foursomes on their way to an eventual 18 1/2 9 1/2 win – a European record which was matched two years later.

  The USA’s 19-9 win two years ago is the only bigger margin in a Europe-United States contest though after Europe’s 6-2 opening days, they won only 15-13 in 1987 and lost the contest in 1999.

  Battle of Brookline

  From the American perspective, what is needed is a comeback to top one of the Ryder Cup’s most memorable contests – largely for unwanted reasons.

  The 1999 contest in Brookline is chiefly noted for the controversy on the final day, with Justin Leonard’s long putt at the 17th sparking wild American celebrations even as Europe’s Jose Maria Olazabal still had a putt for a half to keep the match alive.

  Colin Montgomerie reported that he suffered such abuse that his father left the course, Mark James alleged that a fan spat at his wife and Europe vice-captain Sam Torrance singled out Tom Lehman’s conduct as “disgusting”, with Lehman later apologising for his and his team’s behaviour.

  A dramatic contest, though, deserves to be remembered for the golf that was played. Wins for Montgomerie and Paul Lawrie followed by Sergio Garcia and Jesper Parnevik gave Europe the early initiative, with Jeff Maggert and Hal Sutton pulling back a first American win and the other match on Friday morning halved.

  A half for Montgomerie and Lawrie and wins for Garcia and Parnevik, Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez and then Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood made it 6-2 and each of Saturday’s sessions were shared 2-2, leaving Europe 10-6 up heading into the singles.

  American players won the first seven matches to finish before Padraig Harrington and Lawrie stopped the rot. Jim Furyk beat Garcia, though, to make it 14-12 and Olazabal’s miss after the commotion at the 17th meant an eventual 14 1/2 13 1/2 home win.