US Ryder Cup Team: Who Should Play with Whom?

Talk about an embarrassment of riches. The US Ryder Cup team is loaded with talent that includes several major winners, a gold medalist and PGA Tour Player of The Year. But when there’s this much talent, the trick is to massage it so that the right number of points are tallied by Sunday evening of Ryder Cup week.

The first rule in Ryder Cup pairings is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  For instance, the Euros would have been idiots to break up the Seve Ballesteros/ Jose Maria Olazabal pairing.  And because they weren’t idiots, Ballesteros and Olazabal went on to win the most points for Europe of any pairing ever.

The U.S. team should do the same for the partnership of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas who went 3 for 4 in 2018.  They know each other so well that they were practically brothers growing up in golf.  If they lose two matches in a row, then it’s time to break them up, but not until that happens. We should expect them to go all five matches unless one or the other is too exhausted or if there are rookies who need a chance to play,  both of which can happen in Ryder Cup.

But there are 10 other participants to sort out, and one of them is trying to make it easy for U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker.

Xander Schauffele put in his two cents worth with a preference for playing with Patrick Cantlay. They have experience as partners in the 2019 Presidents Cup.  Cantlay apparently likes playing with Schauffele because he nagged him for three months to get him to partner up for a Zurich Classic.

Schauffele believes they have similar styles of play that could be an asset for the US.

“We could be sort of a team that would kind of almost make history in terms of we get along really well, and I think we can do really well together, and we sort of mesh,” Schauffele said at the Tour Championship. “We learned how to put points up on the board, and I think if we could continue to run together, we would learn how to win and be a sort of strong team that the U.S. can rely on.”

Hallelujah!! Somebody who wants to step up. We could say give that man a medal, but he already has one. And it’s Olympic gold.

That leaves eight other players to sort out for fourball and foursomes.  And in doing so, it’s important to have every golfer play at least once before Sunday’s singles matches.  The reason is that all golfers say there is no tee shot as nervous as their first one at their first Ryder Cup.

Johnny Pott, a quality Ryder Cupper of the 1960s, once said, and this is paraphrasing, that there’s nothing that makes a golfer more nervous than hearing the national anthem and then having the tee announcer say now playing for the United States and your name. He played on three teams, so he should know.

Nerves aside, the challenge is mixing and matching the rest of the personalities and golf games. In addition, Brooks Koepka is still questionable with his wrist.  In the last Ryder Cup, he partnered with Tony Finau in fourballs, and they won one and lost one.

“I think we can do really well together, and we sort of mesh.”  — Xander Schauffele on possiblity of pairing with Patrick Cantlay

Koepka paired with Dustin Johnson in foursomes and they lost, but they were playing Sergio Gargia and Rory McIlroy, no slouches when it comes to golf.  So, the U.S. team, as a whole, is still on the lookout for a compatible partner for Koepka.

If he’s able to play, why not put Koepka with another guy who seems just about as tough, and that’s Daniel Berger. They both went to Florida State and presumably had the same golf coach. Why not give that pairing a shot?

And, here’s an idea: Don’t play Koepka in foursomes. He doesn’t have the temperament for it.  Doesn’t make him a bad guy, just not a foursomes star.  And if he cannot play, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk can still get the ball around, and Mickelson still has plenty of length. So, they really don’t need an envelope.

Strangely, Fred Couples and Davis Love III were able to play foursomes because, as they once explained it, they were both used to hitting the ball into and out of many awkward places. If one of them did it to the other one, it wasn’t like they hadn’t ever been in that situation.  And they like each other, which helps any pairing.

A team that has not been talked about, and one the Euro team should fear would be Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa, especially in fourball. Morikawa is always going to be in play, and DJ has the length and strength to hit the ball forever.

Except for an untimely shot into what didn’t look like a bunker on the 18th hole at Whistling Straits, DJ might have been in a playoff at the 2010 PGA that was eventually won by Martin Kaymer. He can play the course.

DJ and Morikawa might be good enough to go 4-0 in the partnerships if they decided to try foursomes.  Morikawa isn’t going to put DJ in a bad spot, and if he does, DJ can hit out of anything where he has a stance. If DJ hits it in the rough, it won’t be long rough because of the US course set up which will be wide fairways, shortish rough.

Just as it’s difficult to figure out how to pair Koepka, it’s a challenge to pair Bryson DeChambeau. In 2018, he partnered with Tiger Woods in one fourball session and Phil Mickelson in the other, and they lost both.

While DeChambeau is long, and sometimes straight, it’s that “sometimes” that loses points.  That makes him another candidate for fourball versus foursomes.  With DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler both based in Dallas, it might make some sense to try them out in fourball and see if they gel. If they do, we might have something.  If they don’t, then DeChambeau could try with Harris English who is having a resurgent year. English is old enough at 32, to have patience with DeChambeau, more so than someone who is 23 or 24 or 25.

The US should be able to score a couple of points in foursomes with DeChambeau.   We just need someone to declare that he wants to be his DeChambeau’s new best partner. Like the unexpected Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods or Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods pairings, it’s just going to be trial and error to find the right one. In singles, like Koepka, DeChambeau just needs to turn the knob to kill and go after it.

While those may not be the perfect pairings for Ryder Cup, based on the guys on the team, their personalities as they present themselves, the way they play golf and the intimidation factor of Ryder Cup, these picks for partnerships are more than reasonable.  And Steve Stricker is a very reasonable guy.  If he’s in doubt, he should ask Fred Couples. Nobody knows people better than Couples does.