U.S. captain will send out English-Morikawa duo again despite analytics ranking them 132nd out of 132 possible combinations
There’s no sugarcoating it: Day 1 of the 2025 Ryder Cup was a disaster for Team USA.
Despite sending out their best players, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau, the U.S. won just one point as Europe dominated. As has become common, the best European players – Scottsdale’s Jon Rahm, Florida’s Rory McIlroy, and Dubai’s Tommy Fleetwood – played their best golf.
Europe rolled in miraculous putt after miraculous putt. Georgia’s Sepp Straka chipped in for Team Europe. Justin Rose, who at this point in his career is arguably one of the worst golfers to play in the modern Ryder Cup, made a 45-foot putt that wound up helping secure a point for his pairing with Fleetwood in Fourballs.
At 5.5-2.5, it’s a tall order for the US to come back, particularly when Team Europe can count on making long-distance putts in a way no other team can. While most of the pairings on Friday seemed understandable, one that immediately stuck out was putting Harris English and Collin Morikawa out in Foursomes. Unsurprisingly, they got boat-raced by McIlroy and Fleetwood, 5&4.
Something has to change for Saturday, right?
Team USA golfer Collin Morikawa reacts after a missed putt on the second hole on the first day of competition for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. Mandatory Credit: Paul Childs-Reuters via Imagn Images
Keegan Bradley Running It Back For U.S.
Nope. Not gonna change.
Late Friday evening, both teams announced the pairings for the opening Foursomes matches on Saturday. And what do you know – in Match 2, Keegan Bradley is running out Harris English and Collin Morikawa. Inexcusable.
Golf analytics website datagolf put out a list of optimal pairings for both sides ahead of the event, based on course fit, specific skills, and how those skills complement each other. And out of 132 possible pairings for the U.S., English and Morikawa ranked 132nd. Literally the worst possible pairing. And captain Keegan Bradley and Team USA are running it out not once, but twice. Both times going up against arguably the strongest European side, McIlroy and Fleetwood.
That’s not acceptable.
It’s hard enough for the U.S. to compete against the power of friendship that allows European players to outperform their skill level. It’s hard enough to overcome the obsessive focus on Seve Ballesteros, who played when most European players were too young to have ever watched him play.
But to pair up the worst possible combination, the literal worst, is malpractice. For some perspective on how the European team has given themselves an advantage with quality pairings and luck, the list of strokes gained from Friday’s Fourballs session demonstrates that perfectly.
Scottie Scheffler had more total strokes gained than Jon Rahm, but lost his match 3&2 anyway, thanks to Rahm making every putt within 175 yards. Europe threw out five of the seven worst golfers on the day, but won the session overall. Justin Rose was a negative-strokes-gained player, yet his pairing won a match. Team USA significantly outgained the European team overall, and in every specific category other than off the tee, and lost the session.
The other pairings, DeChambeau and Cam Young, one of the few bright spots on the day; Schauffele and Cantlay; and Henley and Scheffler have some logic to them. But when you’re not getting the breaks, you have to try to make some of your own. Pairing English and Morikawa again ain’t it.
