FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Even though he’s in a hole at the Ryder Cup, American captain Keegan Bradley is sticking with the same lineup, with only one tweak. And European captain Luke Donald isn’t changing a thing.
The Americans will play seven of the same eight players for Saturday’s opening alternate-shot matches as played in the morning on Day 1, when they walked off the course with a 3-1 deficit. The Europeans will run it back with all four of their teams.
Bradley is calling on Bryson DeChambeau to open the action, same as he did Friday, but will pair him with Cameron Young instead of Justin Thomas — the only substitution from opening day.
The Americans closed the first day trailing 5½-2½. No team has overcome that big a first-day deficit since the U.S. erased a 6-2 gap in 1999.
“He hit a lot of incredible shots,” Bradley said of DeChambeau, who lost both his matches Friday. “Ultimately, we needed to make more putts. I think everyone on our team would say that.”
Besides subbing in Young for Thomas, the only other changes for either team is the order the teams go out.
The lineup:
- 1. DeChambeau and Young vs. Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Åberg. 2. Harris English and Collin Morikawa vs. Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood (“Fleetwood Mac”). 3. Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay vs. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton. 4. Russell Henley and Scottie Scheffler vs. Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland.
In the tournament’s opening match, Bradley hoped to turbocharge the start by putting DeChambeau out first and having him crank his driver to try to hit the green on the downhill par-4 that was playing at 406 yards. DeChambeau missed the green, but ended up making birdie to win the hole. It was the only hole he and Thomas won the entire match in a 4-and-3 loss to Rahm and Hatton.
Young was among the best players for America on Day 1 (a short list that also included Cantlay). Playing in front of a home crowd, Young made five birdies in America’s only afternoon win, pairing with Thomas for a 6-and-5 victory over Åberg and Hovland.
Rahm won both his matches from the leadoff spot Friday. For Day 2, he’ll go out third.
“I think Jon is looking to always just help in any way he can to contribute to the team,” Donald said.
Bradley had the world’s No. 1 player in Scheffler, but the reigning British and PGA champion never got on track. He was the first No. 1 since Tiger Woods to go 0-2 on the first day since 2002. Neither of his matches made it past the 17th hole.
“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.”
Maybe the biggest head-scratcher, especially among the number junkies, was Bradley’s pairing of English and Morikawa, who were 5-and-4 losers to McIlroy and Fleetwood and are involved in Saturday morning’s only rematch.
The website datagolf.com ran projections for all 132 possible two-man pairings for foursomes and calculated English and Morikawa at No. 132. Asked about this after Saturday’s matchups came out, Bradley said he had confidence in the pair.
“We’re sticking to our plan,” he said. “We’re not going to panic and make those sort of mistakes. We’re going to stick to what we know.”