USA’S KOEPKA TO FACE EUROPE’S ABERG IN RYDER CUP SINGLES

Koepka and his 11 U.S. teammates enter the final day trailing 10.5 to 5.5. No team has ever rallied from more than four points down entering the 12 singles matches and won the Cup.

“We are in a great position,” said Europe Captain Luke Donald.

As the current holders, the U.S. will need to claim 8.5 of the 12 available points to finish with a tie and retain the cup. “We are going to be on a mission tomorrow,” said American Patrick Cantlay.

Koepka, the Smash GC captain and this year’s PGA Championship winner, is unbeaten in Ryder Cup singles matches with a 2-0-1 record.

In his Ryder Cup debut in 2016, he beat England’s Danny Willett, 5&4 at Hazeltine. Two years later at Le Golf National outside Paris, he halved his match against another Englishman, Paul Casey. And in 2021 at Whistling Straits, he beat Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger, 2&1. Casey and Wiesberger now compete against Koepka on different teams as LIV Golf members.

Koepka will go out in the seventh match of the day with a chance to avenge the Foursomes loss that he and partner Scottie Scheffler suffered against Sweden’s Aberg and Norway’s Viktor Hovland on Saturday. Hovland and Aberg won 9&7, the largest victory in Ryder Cup history in a scheduled 18-hole match.

“We’re meeting two strong guys, No. 1 in the world and five-time major champ, so we tried to not give them anything,” Hovland said after Saturday’s match. “And we played really, really solid. Obviously, we didn’t meet a sharp Scottie and Brooks, but we played some really nice golf today.”

Koepka now has a 6-6-2 career Ryder Cup record going into Sunday.

Aberg, who turned pro in June after a stellar collegiate career at Texas Tech, is playing in his first Ryder Cup. He and Hovland played three matches together this week with a 2-1-0 mark.