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.
Which means, even after the Internationals dropped the morning session, the quartet of Jason Day, Min Woo Lee, Ben An and Christiaan Bezuidenhout will sit your complete day for the house workforce at Royal Montreal. Lee, a captain’s choose for the primary time, hasn’t performed since Thursday afternoon.
An, Day and Bezuidenhout all had been a part of successful alternate-shot groups on Friday that lifted the Internationals to an unbelievable sweep that knotted the rating on the midway level of the competitors.
It’s a daring transfer from Weir, who mentioned he was sticking to his plan set in the beginning of the day even after his workforce misplaced the better-ball session, 3-1, and now trails by two factors total, 8-6. Foursomes has traditionally been a harder format for the house workforce; previous to Friday, when the Internationals claimed their first foursomes win since 2005, they’d been outscored by the People by 33 factors in that format since 2007.
“They’re enjoying effectively,” Weir mentioned. “We just like the matchups, we just like the pairings, and we’re rolling with it.”
All three Canadians shall be despatched out for the afternoon – regardless that Taylor Pendrith and Mackenzie Hughes had 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 periods on Saturday after struggling mightily along 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 earth – for all 5 periods. Weir will go the space with Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im and Adam Scott, their high three automated qualifiers, in addition to Canadians Conners and Pendrith.
