Ryder Cup captaincy is a tricky job. You pick your vice-captains and players — including, if you are Keegan Bradley, deciding whether to select yourself — then work out how best to use them. Who to partner with whom? In what order? What about some bonding activities? Should the team wear VR headsets programmed with insults to prepare them for unruly United States crowds?
For Luke Donald, the returning European captain, it has been relatively straightforward: select almost exactly the same team that romped to victory in Rome (the only change being a different Hojgaard twin) and follow a similar blueprint to two years ago. Bradley’s choices have been more complicated and he has landed on a team that contains four Ryder Cup rookies to Europe’s one.
The Ryder Cup has three formats: foursomes, where two team-mates share a single ball, alternating shots, in a match against two players from the other team; four-balls, where four players (two from each side) each play their own ball, with the lowest individual score winning the hole for his team; and singles, which is old-fashioned one-v-one matchplay.
The unique nature of foursomes — the rarity of a professional golfer not simply playing their own ball from start to finish — means that is where a captain’s choices can have the most influence. It is also the format that kicks off the competition, with foursomes matches taking place on Friday and Saturday mornings, and it goes without saying that a fast start is beneficial.
What’s more, recent history shows that, when it comes to the Ryder Cup, if you get your foursomes pairings right, you will probably win the whole thing:
Two years ago Donald’s foursomes pairings were cleverly combined. Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg and Jon Rahm, all strong off the tee, played with Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland and Tyrrell Hatton respectively, some of Europe’s best when it comes to approach play. In foursomes, one team-mate tees off at odd-numbered holes and the other at even-numbered holes, and the European brains trust plotted how to capitalise on this at Marco Simone Golf Club to play to their stars’ strengths. Those three pairings won all six points available to them, laying the foundations for victory.
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Such was their dominance that on the Saturday morning, Aberg and Hovland inflicted a 9&7 defeat on Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka, the most one-sided 18-hole match in Ryder Cup history. Until then the record was 8&7, shared by two Americans, both in singles matches: Tom Kite, who thrashed England’s Howard Clark at the Belfry in 1989, and Fred Couples, who did the same to Ian Woosnam at Valderrama eight years later.
Kite on his way to victory, left, while Couples consoles Woosnam after a chastening defeat, right
After only 11 holes Scheffler and Koepka — two of the biggest names on the US team — had to shake hands and accept defeat by a pairing that featured the only player to take part in the Ryder Cup without ever contesting a major. Indeed, Aberg had made his professional debut only four months earlier. Scheffler was left in tears at the end.
Aberg and Hovland will surely reprise their Scandinavian double act in New York this week. So too Rahm and Hatton, who have since become even closer as LIV Golf team-mates and champions of that tour this season. Donald may be tempted to keep the continuity going with McIlroy and Fleetwood, but he has other options here.
Shane Lowry, for example, is one of the best when it comes to approach play but he has struggled a little off the tee and with his putter this season; McIlroy is exceptional in both those areas, making that a complementary duo (plus the two are firm friends). A pairing of Fleetwood and Sepp Straka, who played with Lowry last time, would be consistently high-quality across all three disciplines.
Or how about Justin Rose? He was left out of the foursomes in Rome but has a good record in the format, winning 75 per cent of the points he has contested, and has enjoyed a productive year. Rose’s relative weakness off the tee lends him to a pairing with McIlroy, which could mean Lowry missing out, or possibly an all-English team of Rose and Fleetwood at the expense of Straka. It will be fascinating to see in which direction the captain goes.
The only US duo that won a point in foursomes two years ago was Max Homa and Brian Harman and neither of them are in the team this year, so Bradley is at square one with his pairings. Collin Morikawa has a good foursomes record, less so Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau — but it would be a shock if either the world No1 or their biggest asset off the tee was left on the bench.
The first morning of the Ryder Cup is a big stage, fit for big performers. That means multiple major winners such as Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele. The US Open champion JJ Spaun and world No3 Russell Henley come into contention too, and it helps that both are among the best in the game when it comes to approach play.
DeChambeau’s big-hitting would pair well with Henley’s consistency from the fairways and on the green, although Scheffler and Henley played together in the Presidents Cup last year and may do so again. Morikawa’s struggles with the putter make Sam Burns or possibly Harris English a shrewd choice as his partner. Thomas and Patrick Cantlay would dovetail well, leaving Schauffele (also not the best putter this year) to partner Burns, Harris or possibly Spaun. Decisions, decisions …
Yet picking the pairings is only half the battle because deciding who takes the first tee shot is more significant than you might think. As Jamie Kennedy of Golf Digest shrewdly pointed out on social media this month, the shape of holes around Bethpage Black offers a chance for some marginal gains. That is because the player teeing off at the odd-numbered holes will face four that shape left-to-right and only two that go right-to-left; for his team-mate teeing off at the even-numbered holes it is five right-to-left holes and none that move left-to-right.
What’s the relevance of this? Well, shot shape off the tee could be crucial. Of course, the world’s best players are not confined to one single shape with the driver, but they have preferences. Scheffler, for example, tends to a fade while McIlroy is more comfortable drawing the ball. This was his opening tee shot of the BMW Championship at Wentworth this month:
Rahm, like Scheffler, hits a booming fade and will therefore be tasked with taking the first tee shot in his foursomes match. That will open up extra scoring opportunities, particularly at these three holes:
DeChambeau joins McIlroy in the draw camp, so his partner is likely to tee it up first, leaving the even-numbered holes for Bryson’s bombs. Here are the best examples where that can pay off at Bethpage:
Morikawa is the Americans’ third-strongest driver of the ball and prefers a fade. For Europe that’s Aberg, but I’m not sure anyone has ever seen him hit a drive that was not gun-barrel straight. That’s a nice asset for Donald to have too.
Ryder Cup
Bethpage Black, New York
Friday-Sunday
TV Sky Sports