MONTREAL – Hoping for a reversal of fortunes, Worldwide captain Mike Weir despatched out the identical eight gamers from the morning for the afternoon foursomes on the Presidents Cup.
It’s the primary time that’s occurred in Presidents Cup historical past.
Meaning, even after the Internationals dropped the morning session, the quartet of Jason Day, Min Woo Lee, Ben An and Christiaan Bezuidenhout will sit the whole day for the house crew at Royal Montreal. Lee, a captain’s decide for the primary time, hasn’t performed since Thursday afternoon.
An, Day and Bezuidenhout all have been a part of successful alternate-shot groups on Friday that lifted the Internationals to an inconceivable sweep that knotted the rating on the midway level of the competitors.
The U.S. and Worldwide groups will compete in 4 foursomes matches Saturday afternoon.
It’s a daring transfer from Weir, who stated he was sticking to his plan set initially of the day even after his crew misplaced the better-ball session, 3-1, and now trails by two factors total, 8-6. Foursomes has traditionally been a tougher format for the house crew; previous to Friday, when the Internationals claimed their first foursomes win since 2005, that they had been outscored by the People by 33 factors in that format since 2007.
“They’re enjoying properly,” Weir stated. “We just like the matchups, we just like the pairings, and we’re rolling with it.”
All three Canadians can be despatched out for the afternoon – despite the fact that Taylor Pendrith and Mackenzie Hughes have been, statistically, the 2 worst gamers on the course on Saturday morning. Collectively, Hughes and accomplice Corey Conners mixed to make only a single birdie within the morning fourballs.
As for U.S. captain Jim Furyk, he’ll reheat three of his authentic foursomes pairings from Friday, with solely Collin Morikawa (previously with Sahith Theegala) and Sam Burns (didn’t play) teaming up for the primary time in alternate shot. Theegala will sit each classes on Saturday after struggling mightily together with his ball-striking on Friday.
Bradley, in the meantime, was the second-best participant from tee to inexperienced on Saturday morning (throughout what turned out to be a 4-and-3 loss to Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim) however will spend the afternoon on the bench.
At this stage of the competitors, it seems that each captains are leaning into their core gamers.
Furyk will use Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay – three of the highest 4 gamers on the planet – for all 5 classes. Weir will go the gap with Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im and Adam Scott, their high three computerized qualifiers, in addition to Canadians Conners and Pendrith.
