Ryder Cup: Previews, predictions for each of the Friday four-ball matches
Talk about getting the matches started with some fireworks. Both captains clearly wanted to get some of their best out in front, and the new pairings will do just that.
On the American side, captain Jim Furyk is going to put out two of the biggest hitters on the PGA TOUR to challenge FedEx Cup winner Justin Rose and Spanish firebrand Jon Rahm. This might be one of the most balanced matches on the card, and it will set the tone for the rest of the day, if not the rest of the week.
Brooks Koepka will look to build off his success two years ago at Hazeltine, and pairing with Tony Finau in the better-ball format is a solid decision from captain Furyk. The two-time U.S. Open winner made his Ryder Cup debut in the Friday afternoon four-ball in a 5&4 victory alongside Brandt Snedeker. In the Saturday session, he paired with Dustin Johnson in the lead match, but the duo fell to Rory McIlroy and Thomas Pieters 3&1.
Over the past month, though, there aren’t many hotter players than his partner, Tony Finau. The 29-year-old finished inside the top-ten of the first three FedEx Cup Playoff events, before finishing the season with a T-15 at East Lake. Finau brings an excellent approach game to the pairing. Despite ranking just 180th on TOUR in fairways hit, he still hit over 70 percent of greens in regulation, and ranked tenth in adjusted scoring.
For the Europeans, the team will be leaning heavily all week on World No. 2 Justin Rose. Through four career Ryder Cup appearances, Rose has scored an impressive 12 points. That’s precisely the type of cool hand that the Europeans will look to in four-ball to allow a guy like Jon Rahm to do what he does, and that’s go into full attack mode.
Rahm is a fiery, emotional competitor on a normal week, and his Ryder Cup debut coming on European soil will only bring more of that out in him. The runner-up at the 2017 WGC Match Play fell short in both match-play format events on the PGA TOUR in 2018, but he’s no stranger to what it takes to win.
With crowds certain to be in full force on Friday morning, I’m giving a bit of the edge to the European side. Justin Rose is as calm, cool and collected as they come, and if the blue team gets a few early hole wins on the board, the Americans may feel the need to press. This won’t be a runaway by any means, but the Europeans look to get an early point here.