In 2023, Europe went out in foursomes, also known as alternate shot, and swept the U.S. 4\u20130. The Americans played from behind the entire weekend and the final outcome was never in doubt. In 2021, the U.S. jumped to a 3\u20131 lead after the first foursomes session and stormed to a 19\u20139 victory. In 2018 in Paris, alternate shot was played as Friday’s second session, Europe swept it 4\u20130, and the rout was on.<\/p>\n
So, this first alternate-shot session that kicks off at 7:10 a.m. Friday morning deserves extra scrutiny. There\u2019s no doubt captains Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald have been plotting it for weeks and probably longer. Here is a prediction for how the pairings will line up.<\/p>\n
Match 1: Scottie Scheffler\/Russell Henley vs. Jon Rahm\/Tyrrell HattonMatch 2: Bryson DeChambeau\/Cameron Young vs. Viktor Hovland\/Ludvig \u00c5bergMatch 3: Justin Thomas\/Ben Griffin vs. Robert MacIntyre\/Justin RoseMatch 4: Patrick Cantlay\/Xander Schauffele vs. Rory McIlroy\/Tommy Fleetwood<\/p>\n
In 2021 at Whistling Straits, Jon Rahm teamed with Sergio Garcia in the opening match and won. In 2023, Rahm teamed with Tyrrell Hatton in the opening match and won. It would be a shock to see anyone other than Rahm hit the opening tee shot for Europe on Friday morning. Anticipating this, Keegan Bradley could send his top player and perhaps top pairing out first to try to seize momentum. Why not plant Scottie Scheffler on that first tee in Match 1? Scheffler formed a formidable duo with Henley at last year\u2019s Presidents Cup (where many of this week\u2019s pairing were essentially workshopped) and based on the practice rounds this week, all signs point to Scheffler-Henley in this opening session. I think they lead off.<\/p>\n
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Bryson DeChambeau could energize the crowd on the first tee Friday morning. \/ Harry How\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Of course, if Bradley wanted to amp a frenzied crowd even further, he might send his biggest hitter out to smash the first drive of this event. But let\u2019s go with DeChambeau in Match 2, teaming with fellow long-hitter Cam Young, who like DeChambeau plays a Titleist golf ball, to make an electric duo. DeChambeau could very well try to drive the green on the par-4 opening hole\u2014think the crowd might enjoy that? Hovland doesn\u2019t enter this week as sharp as he was in 2023, but back then he and \u00c5berg formed a lethal foursomes combo that delivered a historic 9-and-7 beatdown to Scheffler and Brooks Koepka on Saturday. Donald could well trot them out together again.<\/p>\n
In Match 3, Bradley can tap Justin Thomas, another high-energy player capable of creating fireworks, and task him with shepherding rookie Ben Griffin in his first match. In 2023, Europe sent out Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka in this spot, but with Straka arguably the shakiest member of this year\u2019s European squad and Lowry a potential pairing for McIlroy in the afternoon session, \u00a0this is a prime opportunity for Luke Donald to shake it up. Rose is one of Europe\u2019s all-time best alternate-shot players, but he didn\u2019t play this format in Rome, where instead he successfully teamed with MacIntyre in four-ball. Donald could also toss together a surprise here.<\/p>\n
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Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele could team up together again in the opening session. \/ Adam Cairns-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Although they went 0\u20132 in foursomes in Rome, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele are still 6\u20133 across five team competitions in this format. Bradley will likely send them out somewhere on Friday morning, and the anchor match makes sense. Facing Europe\u2019s \u201cFleetwood Mac\u201d would be a spicy matchup, given how McIlroy and Cantlay went at it in Rome. McIlroy is likely to go five sessions this week, and he could anchor Friday afternoon\u2019s session alongside his buddy Lowry. Fleetwood could also pop right back out with Rose.<\/p>\n
The countdown is on and soon we\u2019ll know what captains Bradley and Donald have cooked up for Friday morning. Whatever the case, this first session will be epic\u2014and make no mistake, highly consequential. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If recent history is a guide, the opening alternate-shot session for this 45th Ryder Cup will be foretelling.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-164968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}