You start with the pairings that were pretty much guaranteed, the Europeans tossing out Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton to lead off the morning foursomes session on Friday, the Americans locking their best team, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, into the anchor match.
Then acknowledge that Rory McIlroy, as expected, got paired with the ultimate security blanket, Tommy Fleetwood, and the U.S., to no one’s surprise, put world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler with an elite fairway-and-greens specialist, Russell Henley.
No surprises, any of that.
Ah, but it’s the Ryder Cup, so twists and turns are part of the suspense at this biennial event. Thus were the four matches in the opening foursomes session filled with announcements that raised some eyebrows.
For the Europeans, it’s no shock that Ludvig Åberg and Viktor Hovland got the call, only the fact that they were not paired together was noteworthy. After all, in Italy two years ago, they recorded a pair of foursomes wins, including a Ryder Cup record 9-and-7 thrashing of Scheffler and Brooks Koepka.
Ah, but we’re not in Italy, Toto, and captain Luke Donald chose to put Åberg out with Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick, he of the 0-3-0 record in foursomes and 1-7-0 overall mark. Åberg and Fitzpatrick will take on Scheffler and Henley in the morning’s second match.
Most likely, those four will be walking into a raucous scenario because preceding them will be the opening match – Rahm and Hatton (2-0-1 as a foursomes pairing) taking on Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau. If the announcement of DeChambeau caught some by surprise, it’s likely because he was on the short end of a pair of ugly foursome games in Paris in 2018, one with Phil Mickelson, the other with Tiger Woods; both were settled by 5-and-4 mismatches.
But seven years later, DeChambeau is clearly a different player, and U.S. captain Keegan Bradley is very much in tune with the emotion that fuels these Ryder Cup games.
He conceded that this pairing was in his mind for a while – no surprise, then, that Thomas and DeChambeau spent significant time on Tuesday trying to drive it more than 360 yards onto the first green – and it’s one he favours. “They are both incredible players, but they are both fiery players,” said Bradley.
“They are both going to relish the opportunity to lead out our team.”
On the other hand, the task of anchoring a foursomes session appears to be owned by Schauffele and Cantlay. They did it twice in 2021 and again in 2023 with mixed results, as they are just 2-2 against four different teams of Europeans. On Friday morning, they’ll take on a fifth different team, Hovland alongside MacIntyre.
That decision caught some by surprise, not just because it broke up the dynamic Hovland-Åberg pairing that went 2-0 in foursomes in Italy two years ago, but also because MacIntyre didn’t play foursomes two years ago.
Don’t count Hovland as surprised, however.
“Bob and I get along well,” said the young man from Norway. “I think our games complement each other’s. I think we’ll go out there and really set the tone and hopefully push each other, make some birdies, and make it difficult for the other team.”
If it was suspected by many that McIlroy and Fleetwood would anchor the session and go up against Schauffele and Cantlay, a tip of the cap to Donald for slotting them third, a position McIlroy has never held before in the opening session. (He’s gone first or second in four previous Ryder Cups and fourth the other three times.)
Going out third alongside Fleetwood, with whom he teamed for a pair of foursomes wins last time around in Italy, McIlroy draws a formidable ball-striking U.S. team – Collin Morikawa and Harris English – but one that somewhat eases him into the competition with a little less commotion.
Since 1979, when the Europeans joined the fray, this is the 12th home game for the U.S., and for the 11th time, they will lead with foursomes. (In 2004, captain Hal Sutton chose to start with four-ball.) In 10 previous Ryder Cups at home, the Americans have won the opening foursomes session five times, lost just once, and drawn on four occasions.
With only eight players per team in action, Donald chose to sit out Justin Rose, who holds a 7-2-1 foursomes record in the Ryder Cup, in addition to Ireland’s Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, and the team’s only rookie, Rasmus Højgaard.
It’s not a surprise that Bradley will sit three of his four rookies – J.J. Spaun, Ben Griffin, Cameron Young – and also Sam Burns.
The morning foursomes session (with Ryder Cup foursomes records in parentheses) and some titbits:
At 12:10 p.m. Jon Rahm (4-0-0) and Tyrrell Hatton (2-1) vs. Justin Thomas (2-3-0) and Bryson DeChambeau (0-2-0): Dynamic alongside Hatton in Italy, Rahm was equally strong in two games with fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia in 2021 . . . . You can fully expect DeChambeau to be given the green light to try and drive the green at the 365-yard first hole, injecting even more electricity into the pairings . . . . As a team in 2021, Rahm and Hatton drew a team game with Thomas and Jordan Spieth in 2021 and settled for a draw against DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler . . . . Thomas beat Hatton in singles in 2021.
At 12:26 p.m. Ludvig Åberg (2-0-0) and Matt Fitzpatrick (0-3-0) vs. Scottie Scheffler (0-2-0) and Russell Henley (rookie): Each of these pairings is new to their respective teams, and it will be Henley’s first Ryder Cup match . . . . Scheffler failed to win a match in ’23, going 0-2-2 in Italy, which included a pair of foursomes thrashings.
At 12:42 p.m. Rory McIlroy (7-5-1) and Tommy Fleetwood (4-0-0) vs. Collin Morikawa (2-1-0) and Harris English (0-0-0): English is in his second Ryder Cup but didn’t play foursomes in 2021 . . . . Morikawa will be playing with his fifth different partner in team games and third different foursomes partner . . . . In his lengthy Ryder Cup career, McIlroy has gone 1-1 in team games vs. Morikawa and 0-1 in team games against English.
At 12:58 p.m. Robert MacIntyre (0-0-0) and Viktor Hovland (2-2-0) vs. Xander Schauffele (2-2-0) and Patrick Cantlay (2-2-0): Schauffele and Cantlay earned some positive momentum in 2021 when they secured two foursomes wins. But they were defeated twice in that same format in Italy, losing by 2-and-1 scores to European stalwarts McIlroy and Fleetwood, then Rahm and Hatton . . . . Don’t overlook “Bob from Oban,” as MacIntyre, a proud Scotsman, went 2-0-1 in his Ryder Cup debut in 2023.
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