Trailing at the Ryder Cup, America stays (mostly) the same for Day 2, Europe doesn’t change a thing
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) — For Day 2 of the Ryder Cup, American captain Keegan Bradley is sticking with Plan A.
That’s even though it didn’t work very well the first time around.
Needing what would be the biggest comeback from an opening-day deficit in a generation, Bradley went with three of the same foursomes pairings that left America trailing 5 1/2-2 1/2. His only tweak for Saturday’s morning session was pairing Cameron Young with Bryson DeChambeau instead of Justin Thomas.
The decision garnering the most heat was pairing Collin Morikawa and Harris English together again after they lost 5 and 4 to Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood. The golf analytics website datagolf.com ran projections and rated the English-Morikawa duo last among all 132 possible U.S. foursomes pairings.
Asked about that decision, Bradley said he had confidence in the pair, who were set for a rematch with the team called “Fleetwood Mac.”
“We’re sticking to our plan,” Bradley said. “We’re not going to panic and make those sort of mistakes. We’re going to stick to what we know.”
European captain Luke Donald sent out the same four groups as he did in Friday’s foursomes, which staked the Euros to a 3-1 lead that they expanded in the afternoon best-ball matches.
“It’s hard to break up those winning partnerships,” Donald said. “So you try and put them out again and hope they continue.”
The lineup for Saturday foursomes:
DeChambeau and Young vs. Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Åberg.
English and Morikawa vs. McIlroy and Fleetwood.
Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay vs. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton.
Russell Henley and Scottie Scheffler vs. Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland.
No team has overcome this big a first-day deficit since the U.S. erased a 6-2 gap in 1999 — the “Comeback at Brookline.”
“We’ve played 25 percent of the points. We’ve played the first quarter of a football game or a basketball game,” Bradley said. “They went out there and they played better than us today. They made more putts. But listen, we knew this was going to be difficult.”
What America will need for a comeback is an encore performance from Young, who was among their best players on Day 1 (a short list that also included Cantlay). Playing in front of a home crowd on a course where he won the 2017 New York State Open, Young made five birdies in America’s only afternoon win (best ball), pairing with Thomas for a 6-and-5 victory over Åberg and Rasmus Hojgaard.
They’ll also need more from Scheffler, who became the first top-ranked player since Tiger Woods to go 0-2 on the first day since 2002. Neither of his matches made it past the 17th hole.
One small change for the U.S. — Scheffler teed off first in his pair Saturday, swapping with the short-hitting Henley. Bethpage’s odd holes set up better for longer drivers.
“When you’re the No. 1 player in the world, you have a day that maybe it wasn’t his best, normally you bounce back,” Bradley said. “We are not worried about Scottie Scheffler.”
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