There were some strange sights around Marco Simone on Friday, the strangest of the lot the 50-man marching band of the Guardia di Finanza who came trampling across the course at noon. Up, down and around the fairways they went, blasting out Antonio D’Elia’s Armi e Brio while the midday sun bounced around off their brass, buttons, and epaulettes. They were led by a fellow who, judging by the look in his eye and the polished silver sword at his side, wasn’t going to take no for an answer even if Tommy Fleetwood was standing over a birdie putt on the 15th. You don’t get that on the back nine at Muirfield.
It seemed they had gone just a touch early with the triumphals, but then Fleetwood made the putt anyway, and Europe were three holes away from a 4-0 sweep of the morning foursomes. So maybe they had timed it right after all. By the time the band had turned and trooped off back to the barracks there was more blues on the scoreboards around here than in the bars on Beale Street.
It all started when Viktor Hovland got to the first green. He was second out in the morning, playing with the rookie Ludvig Åberg against the US pair of Brian Harman, Open champion, and Max Homa. Åberg turned pro only three months ago and hasn’t even played in a major yet; this was, by a distance, the biggest event he has experienced. They made an odd pair, the Norwegian and the Swede, like something out of a Scandinavian buddy movie. Åberg, long, blond, and willowy, is so tall he has to stoop to walk through doors; Hovland, strong, squat, and brunette, is so wide he might have to turn sideways.
“Some people might be a little less talkative, or maybe a little bit more laid-back, or don’t talk as much so the other guy maybe fills that role,” Hovland said, pointedly, when he was asked about his approach to playing foursomes before the start of play. “But we’re both teammates and we’re trying to create a rapport where one guy can trust the other and vice versa.”
Like Åberg, who is a man who never uses three words when one will do. Which it usually will. Especially if it is “cool”. His first three months as a professional golfer had been “cool”, making the Ryder Cup team “really cool”, winning the PGA Tour youth tour programme was “pretty cool”, and getting to know the Swedish pro Peter Hanson “very cool”. Everything about Åberg is. His resting pulse must be at least a dozen under par. Hovland, on the other hand, is a dumbbell-heaving death-metal fanatic away from the course – (Åberg’s verdict on his partner’s taste in music: “Not cool”).
It was Hovland who found the right mood for the opening moments. He came bowling out on to the 1st tee like he was planning to scatter the US pair like pins – eyes wide, biceps bulging – and walloped his opening shot 300 yards down the middle. Åberg, who had the waxy pallor of a man who hadn’t had quite as much sleep as he needed, hit their second 15 yards to the right of the flag, on to the fringe of the green, while Harman left Homa with a 30ft putt. It felt like they had the advantage all the way up until the moment Hovland wafted a little chip around the swirls of the green and in for the first birdie of the week.
The crowd all around erupted at that, Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton were cheering up ahead on the 2nd tee; back on the 1st so were Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka, while Hovland screamed and pumped his fist at the gallery. He hadn’t won a single match when he made his Ryder Cup debut at Whistling Straits, but back then he was a whippersnapper, and 14th in the world; these days, he is ranked fourth, a Tour Championship winner, and one of the senior men on the team. He played like it too. He was extraordinary across that front nine and helped the team into a lead they held right through the day.
He was good enough to carry Åberg who was, understandably enough, just a little wobbly in one or two spots early on. Hovland won them the 2nd with a 15ft par putt, and nearly halved the 3rd with a 25-yard chip after Hovland left him front left of the green. By the 4th the Swede was starting to warm up to it, and nearly chipped in for a half himself. The US pair, by then, had come right back at them, and the match was all-square again, till Homa made a mess of the 5th with a chip that skittered off the back of the green.
When Åberg made a 12ft putt for birdie on the 6th, then another from 16ft on the 9th, Europe were three up, and Homa and Harman were all out of fight. They won 4&3 and, if you listened carefully, you could just hear the brass band warming up as they were coming off the 15th green.
