"There’s certain things you cannot control" - Zach Johnson attributes U.S. Team's Ryder Cup slow start to 'sickness bug'  

The American team had a horrible day at the Ryder Cup on Friday. They lost all of their foursome matches and finished five points behind the European team after the first day.

Recently, the American team captain Zach Johnson opened up about the sluggish performances of players at the biennial event. He revealed that there was a bug that was spread throughout the US team room and was the reason behind the low energy of players.

However, he mentioned that it was not an excuse for the poor performance. He is confident that the team will bounce back in the game on Saturday.

During a press conference, Johnson was asked about his team's performance, he replied:

"Well, we have contingencies based on a lot of things. You know, I would say that we’d love to have everything drawn out way, way ahead of time. But there’s certain things you cannot control, and we are trying to control the controllables in our team room, and I’ll leave it at that.”

“The bottom line is there’s been some unforeseen things that we’ve had to navigate around, which is really unfortunate, in the sense of health. It’s not an excuse, because we have depth, but I’ll just say, I’m grateful we have a team doctor," he added.

The Europe team will enter Saturday with a commanding five-point lead in contention to continue the legacy of not losing the Ryder Cup on their home soil in the last three decades.

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US team performance at the 2023 Ryder Cup

After losing their Friday morning foursome matches, the US team competed in four-ball matches when three resulted in a tie and one was won by the European team.

The current World No.1 golfer Scottie Scheffler paired up with Sam Burns to play against Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton while Max Homa and Brian Harman played against Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg.

Friday foursome results

• Rahm & Hatton 4&3 over Scheffler & Burns
• Hovland & Aberg 4&3 over Homa & Harman
• Lowry & Straka 2&1 over Morikawa & Fowler
• McIlroy & Fleetwood 2&1 over Cantlay & Schauffele

Friday four-ball results

• Spieth & Thomas TIED Hovland & Hatton
• Koepka & Spieth TIED Rahm & Hojgaard
• Homa & Clark TIED Rose & MacIntyre
• McIlroy & Fitzpatrick 5&3 over Schauffele & Morikawa

The Saturday round of the tournament will start at 1:35 a.m. ET with Justin Thomas pairing up with Jordan Spieth to play against Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood.

Here are the tee times and pairings of the 2023 Ryder Cup for Saturday foursome (All-time in ET):

• 1:35 a.m.: Justin Thomas & Jordan Spieth vs. Rory McIlroy & Tommy Fleetwood
• 1:50 a.m.: Scottie Scheffler & Brooks Koepka vs. Viktor Hovland & Ludvig Aberg
• 2:05 a.m.: Max Homa & Brian Harman vs. Sepp Straka & Shane Lowry
• 2:20 a.m.: Patrick Cantlay & Xander Schauffele vs. Jon Rahm & Tyrrell Hatton