What frustrated US vice-captain was overheard saying about the greens at Bethpage Black for the Ryder Cup

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Team Europe were far superior to the United States on day one of the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

Aside from some truly dreadful decision-making from Keegan Bradley one day, the European Ryder Cup dominance was built on some fantastic putting from many of their players.

Bethpage Black was set up by Bradley in order to favour his team, but the Americans were taken to school on Friday.

Bradley lamented Europeans holing more putts than his US Ryder Cup team, and Luke Donald’s men refused to ease up on the wounded United States players.

The truth of the matter is that Bradley made some awful decisions on day one of the Ryder Cup, with the Collin Morikawa and Harris English partnership drawing huge criticism.

Now Team Europe have the initiative and the onus is very much on the United States players to mount a comeback on Saturday.

What US vice-captain was saying about the Bethpage Black greens at the Ryder Cup

The entire United States camp was an incredibly frustrated one on Friday at Bethpage.

The European players performed better, and they had a captain who got all of the big decisions right on day one.

However, the golf course could have been set up far better according to one specific US vice-captain.

The greens at Bethpage incurred the wrath of one of Bradley’s vice-captains.

European golf journalist Jamie Kennedy overhead one of Bradley’s men furiously scream down his radio: “They need to be rolled and faster tomorrow.”

In times gone by, the Americans always had a huge advantage on faster greens. However, in the modern-day game, every single European player competes on the PGA Tour anyway, so there is no advantage for the United States when it comes down to incredibly slippery and slick greens.

Top 12 strokes gained putting at the Ryder Cup

Only four American players were ranked inside the top 12 in strokes gained putting on day one at Bethpage.

That obviously has to change on Saturday, if the United States are to have any chance of turning things around.

Here’s how the strokes gained on the greens stats ended up after play ended on Friday:

The American players obviously need to hole more putts in order to win more holes but they must get the crowd involved more as well.

The fans at Bethpage Black were uncharacteristically quiet on day one of the Ryder Cup, but that was mostly down to the sheer and utter dominance from the Europeans.

Now the onus is on the United States players to go out there, hole some putts, and haul themselves back into the Ryder Cup.