U.S. Presidents Cup captain Brandt Snedeker had this to say following his team’s ugly Friday performance at Medinah:
“I think we have to look at it, obviously. It didn’t go great. I feel like our guys played pretty well, all in all. I know the scoreboard doesn’t reflect it.”
You could say that again. The Americans suffered a clean sweep at the hands of the International team, flipping this event on its head in the process. A 3-2 Thursday lead was transformed into an ominous 3-7 deficit heading into Saturday’s matches.
Incredibly, it was the second straight Presidents Cup where the U.S. team got zeroed in Friday foursomes. After sweeping the Thursday four-ball session at Royal Montreal in 2024, the U.S. team went 0-5 in Friday foursomes, dropping the competition into a tie.
The Americans’ performance in foursomes at the Ryder Cup adds no comfort. They went 2-6 in the format at Bethpage Black last year on the way to an embarrassing defeat (embarrassing for many reasons).
But the biggest problem with the U.S. team’s foursomes failures is that they don’t seem to have any idea why they can’t succeed in the format.
While Snedeker admitted that is the “million-dollar question” on Friday night, the latest U.S. captain provided no more solutions than any other recent team leader.
Despite what happened two years ago in Friday foursomes, Snedeker was surprised that his team got swept in the format yet again at Medinah.
On Friday night, he explained that his team prepared for the format in practice and he felt they made the correct pairings decisions.
“It’s the million-dollar question, right? I don’t know. I know our guys are committed to it. Our guys practice it hard leading up to this. I feel like we had the right matchups, we felt like,” Snedeker said.
But the best explanation he could provide for why things went sideways was that “some days the ball just doesn’t want to go in.”
“I can’t put my finger on it. I really wish I could,” Snedeker said. “I tried my best to do it, and we have another session to go out there and try to figure it out.”
His team now faces a huge challenge, trying to overcome a four-point deficit in 20 remaining matches. Sunday brings 12 singles matches, a format the U.S. team typically dominates, and they have a four-ball session Saturday morning.
But four more foursomes matches await Saturday afternoon. While Snedeker said his team is up for that challenge, he didn’t provide any learnings from Friday’s foursomes sweep to give fans hope for an American improvement in the format.
“I think these guys are ready for that challenge, but to answer your question, I don’t really — it’s such a hard question to answer because I can’t really point to one specific thing of why it’s not happening,” Snedeker said.
A few questionable pairings decisions Snedeker made for the Friday foursomes session didn’t help the effort. The captain admitted himself that at least one of them “might not have been the right decision.”
That particular pairing featured Cameron Young and Justin Thomas, who lost 3 and 2 to 46-year-old Adam Scott and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who is ranked 104th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Snedeker first said the Young-Thomas foursomes pairing was one he and his vice captains had considered “beforehand,” before saying he “just kind of felt like I’d roll with it.”
“That was something we had thought about beforehand. We felt like Justin and Cam had played so well the first day, it was going to be kind of hard to keep them off the golf course. That’s one of the things as captain you look back on maybe when this thing is all over with it might not have been the right decision, but it seemed like the right decision at the time,” Snedeker explained. “Those guys are both great guys. They played fantastic on Thursday. Just kind of felt like I’d roll with it. But love those guys. They battled their ass off today. Just didn’t quite get the right momentum we wanted.”
But Snedeker’s worst move might have been letting World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler play in foursomes.
Scheffler and his good friend Sam Burns lost 1 down to Corey Conners and Nick Taylor. The Americans had a huge advantage at first glance, but not if you had read the fine print.
Despite all of his immense powers on the golf course, Scheffler has an abysmal foursomes record in his career. With Friday’s loss, he’s now 1-8-0 in the format across Presidents and Ryder Cups.
One year ago at Bethpage Black, Scheffler teamed up with Russell Henley in two foursomes matches, losing the first 5 and 3, and the second 1 down.
At the 2023 Ryder Cup, Scheffler and Burns played Friday foursomes together, losing 4 and 3.
On Saturday that same year, Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland dusted Scheffler and Brooks Koepka 9 and 7 in foursomes, one of the most lopsided matches in Ryder Cup history.
While Scheffler and Burns did earn a narrow 1-up win in four-ball on Thursday this year, pairing them together in Friday foursomes was unwise.
The best explanation Snedeker could provide for that decision was to say that the players are “friends,” and that he wanted them to be “comfortable.”
“I think they both — the first two matches, they both played really well, I thought. There wasn’t anything that kind of made me want to break them up,” Snedeker said. “I feel like they’re — as I said from day one, they’re best friends. They play a ton of golf together. I want them both to feel comfortable and go out there and do what they do.”
In an age when the European Ryder Cup team has proven the benefits of anchoring decisions in advanced analytics, Snedeker’s response shows U.S. golf has learned little from its repeated failures in team events.
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