Ryder Cup Opening Foursomes Matchups Have Plenty of Firepower
ROME — If there were any surprises in the opening-day foursomes lineup for the Ryder Cup, it came on the United States side, where captain Zach Johnson elected to keep three of his most experienced players—Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth—on the bench.
In their place, he is sending out Ryder Cup rookies Max Homa and Brian Harman as a team in a match that will see them play Europe’s Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg.
It was an interesting decision although it can certainly be supported, given the difficulty of the foursomes (alternate shot) format and perhaps the shaky form of certainly Thomas and Spieth over the course of this year.
And Johnson said it was also a matter of the big picture, trying to look at all five sessions that will take place over the coming days.
"I have the utmost confidence in these eight and the utmost confidence in Jordan and Justin," Johnson said after the Friday morning pairings were announced. “I know we're talking about a great tandem, but it's a situation where it's not about their form. They're playing great.
"So it's really just a matter of trying to dissect all five sessions."
It was no surprise to see Johnson go with Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay in the anchor session. They will go against Europe’s Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood.
The final match of Friday morning's foursomes features two top tandems in Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy (left) and Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay.
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The duo has gone 5-0 in team competitions in the tricky format. Johnson also called on another tandem that has foursomes experience to begin the Ryder Cup at 7:35 a.m. local time (1:35 a.m. ET): Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns vs. Jon Rahm and Terrell Hatton.
The second match will see U.S. Ryder Cup rookies Homa and Harman take on Hovland and Aberg at 7:50 a.m. (1:50 a.m. ET).
The third group is Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa versus Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka at 8:05 a.m. (2:05 a.m. ET) followed by the Schauffele/Cantlay vs. McIlroy/Fleetwood match at 8:20 a.m. (2:20 a.m. ET).
The foursomes format is alternate shot and all of the competition is contested at match play.
Fowler’s foursomes record of 1-3-1 in four previous Ryder Cups might have given pause for Johnson to perhaps go with Koepka and Morikawa. But it also appears Johnson has Koepka in mind to play with Wyndham Clark in fourball, and it’s quite likely that no player will compete in all five sessions.
"History will show, and you can look it up, that being a rookie is almost irrelevant," Johnson said when asked about the duo of Homa and Harman. "One of them, the way we look at it, is not (Homa has played in a Presidents Cup). Yeah, he hasn't played in a Ryder Cup, but he knows team matches. He understands the elements of what's going on, and those two guys bond and mesh so well together on and off the golf course that it's a very natural fit, both as a tandem and for the golf course.
"So zero hesitation. Again, the stats will show that being a Ryder Cup rookie in some regards is actually—well ... I'm not going to get in the weeds, but it's not a bad thing."
The competition will continue Friday afternoon with the fourball competition, which is best ball. Johnson and European captain Luke Donald will submit their pairings in the late morning.
The same format is employed Saturday, followed by 12 singles matches on Sunday for a total of 28 points.
The U.S. team needs 14 points to retain the Cup while the Europeans needs 14½ to regain the Cup.
The U.S. won the last Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits two years ago, 19-9. But the Americans have not won in Europe since 1993.
"It's very close to my plan," Donald said of his initial groupings. "The last few weeks has been many iterations of pairings and stuff. I think probably last week this would have been what I had in mind, and I've seen great play from these guys and from the other four and the whole 12 over these last few days, nothing that would have changed my plans, to be honest.
"Again, we had a pretty good plan in place. It was always going to be a plan that could change, but I didn't really need to because the guys are playing fantastic golf.
“The U.S.—I haven't really given their pairings much thought, to be honest. Nothing really surprises me. They're 12 very strong players. We know our work is cut out. They're going to be very strong, as they always are.
"(And) as I said, we're coming off a very difficult defeat two years ago, and the U.S. are definitely confident, and we're going to have to play some good golf. But I'm excited to see it get started."