It was no secret that, both at the BMW PGA at Wentworth and the Procore Championship in Napa, the Ryder players from both teams, present in large numbers at these two tournaments, were going to play together. The case of the European team, with eleven players present at Wentworth, was already analysed here yesterday: the eleven Ryder players go out to play accompanied by at least another team member: Rose and Fleetwood, Aberg and Fitzpatrick, Hovland and Rasmus Hojgaard, MacIntyre and Hatton; and there is also a three-man match composed of McIlroy, Lowry, and Rahm. Well, in the case of the American side at the Silverado Resort in Napa, it can be noted that Keegan Bradley has gone a step further…
– To begin with, the ten players of the American team present at the Procore will go out one after the other, all in consecutive matches (in the European case, some go out in the morning shift and others in the afternoon) and the groups are completed with vice-captains of the stars and stripes squad, something that has not happened in the European case at Wentworth.
– A three-man Ryder match opens fire from the tee of hole 1, with the World Number One at the front: Scheffler, Spaun, and Henley, who go out to play on Thursday at 21:38 (Spanish peninsular time); immediately behind will be English, Morikawa, and a vice-captain, Simpson; then come Burns, Cantlay, and another vice-captain, Woodland; and closing the series are Young, Griffin, and Thomas. In just 33 minutes, the American team will be complete on the course, going the same way and surely already creating a very Ryder atmosphere on the tee of 1, with the appearance of the groups consecutively. A measure very much in line with the captaincy profile expected of Bradley, with a great emotional component that fully exploits the atmosphere of Bethpage.
– Moreover, when speculating, it also seems that Keegan Bradley is giving more clues than Donald with the formation of these playing groups. Let’s look at some cases.
– Scheffler could well repeat the experience of the last Presidents Cup, where he played alongside Henley and lost only one match, by the minimum. And a pairing of the World Number One with J. J. Spaun, with whom he has established great chemistry in recent months, also fits perfectly.
– Morikawa is being sought a partner, there is no doubt about that, especially for the foursomes format. The Californian has played two Ryder Cups and in the first of them, 2021, he formed a killer duo with Dustin Johnson, with whom he played two foursomes and one fourball, winning all three points. But D. J. is not here, nor was he in Rome, where Collin was paired in the only foursome he played alongside Rickie Fowler, who is also not here. At first glance, a foursome duo formed by English and Morikawa conveys a guarantee of solidity, although it would be necessary to see if their balls are compatible, or if one of them, or both, have great adaptability to the other’s ball, a matter of great importance in this format of play. Let’s note that Moriwaka plays a TaylorMade TP5 X and English a Titleist ProV1…
– If we speculate a bit more and pull the thread a bit further, who wouldn’t find it reasonable and even advisable to pair Justin Thomas and Cameron Young in a fourball pair? A priori, with Young as the local player at Bethpage, it would be a real bombshell. Moreover, the Kentuckian is a natural leader of the team, by experience and personality, and it would make perfect sense to pair him with the more withdrawn character of the group, which is undoubtedly Young.
