Captain of the US Presidents Cup Brandt Snedeker had this to say after his team’s poor performance at Medinah on Friday:
“I think we’ll have to look at it, obviously. It didn’t go well. I felt like our guys played pretty well, all around. I know the scoreboard doesn’t reflect that.”
You can say that again. The Americans suffered a clean sweep at the hands of the International teamflipping this event on its head in the process. A 3-2 on Thursday turned into an ominous 3-7 deficit going to the Saturday games.
Incredibly, it was the second straight Presidents Cup where Team USA went scoreless through four quarters on Friday. After sweeping Thursday’s four-ball session at Royal Montreal in 2024, Team USA went 0-5 in four games Friday, leaving the competition in a tie.
The performance of the Americans in foursomes at the Ryder Cup does not add comfort. They went 2-6 in the format at Bethpage Black last year en route to an embarrassing loss (embarrassing for many reasons).
But the biggest problem with the US team’s foursomes failures is that they don’t seem to have a clue. for what they cannot succeed in the format.
While Snedeker admitted it’s the “million dollar question” Friday night, the latest U.S. captain didn’t provide any more solutions than any other recent team leader.
Snedeker explains why US Presidents Cup was swept: ‘I can’t put my finger on it’
Despite what happened two years ago in four quarters on Friday, Snedeker was surprised that his team was swept in the format again in Medinah.
On Friday night, he explained that his team prepared for the format in practice and felt that they made the correct pairing decisions.
“That’s the million dollar question, right? I don’t know. We know our guys are committed to it. Our guys are practicing hard leading up to it. I feel like we had the right matchups, we felt,” Snedeker said.
But the best explanation I 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 did 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 games remaining. Sunday brings 12 singles matches, a format that the US team typically dominates, and they have a four-ball session on Saturday morning.
But four more foursomes games await on Saturday afternoon. While Snedeker said his team is ready for this challenge, he didn’t provide any learnings from Friday’s quarter to give fans hope. an American improvement in the format.
“I think these guys are ready for that challenge, but to answer your question, I don’t really — that’s such a hard question to answer because I can’t really point to one specific thing as to why it’s not happening,” Snedeker said.
A couple of questionable decisions doom the US Presidents Cup team
A few questionable pairing decisions Snedeker made for Friday’s foursomes session didn’t help the effort. The captain himself admitted that at least one of them “couldn’t be the right decision”.
That particular pairing presented Cameron Young and Justin Thomaswho lost 3 and 2 to 46 years of Adam Scott and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who is ranked 104th in the official world golf ranking.
Snedeker said earlier that the Young-Thomas foursomes pair was one he and his vice-captains had considered “first”, before saying it “felt right as I got with him”.
“It was something we had thought about before. We felt that Justin and Cam had played so well on the first day, it was going to be a little difficult to keep them off the golf course. It’s one of those things as captain that you look back, maybe when this thing is over, it might not be the right decision, but it seemed like the right decision at the time,” Snedeker explained. “These guys are both great guys. They played great on Thursday. I just kind of feel like I’m going to roll with it. But I love those guys. They beat their ass today. They just didn’t have the right timing that we wanted.”
But Snedeker’s worst move could be leaving the world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler play in four.
Scheffler and his good friend Sam Burns lost 1 to Corey Conners and Nick Taylor. The Americans had a huge advantage at first glance, but not if you read the fine print.
Despite all his immense powers on the golf course, Scheffler has an abysmal foursomes record in his career. With Friday’s loss, he is now 1-8-0 in the format in Presidents and Ryder Cups.
A year ago at Bethpage Black, Scheffler teamed with Russell Henley in two four-game matches, losing the first 5 and 3, and the second 1.
At the 2023 Ryder Cup, Scheffler and Burns played four games on Friday, losing 4 and 3.
On Saturday of the same year, Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland dusted Scheffler and Brooks Koepka 9 and 7 in foursomes, one of the most unbalanced matches in the history of the Ryder Cup.
While Scheffler and Burns earned a narrow 1-up victory in four balls on Thursday this year, pairing them together in Friday foursomes was unwise.
The best explanation Snedeker could provide for this decision was to say that the players are “friends”, and that he wanted them to be “comfortable”.
“I think both — the first two games, they both played really well, I think. There was nothing that made me want to break them,” Snedeker said. “I feel like — like I’ve said since 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 era when Europe’s Ryder Cup team has demonstrated the benefits of anchoring decisions in advanced analytics, Snedeker’s response shows that US golf has learned little from its repeated failures in team events.
