SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — The pairings for the first Friday morning foursomes (alternate shot) matches of the 43rd Ryder Cup are in.
Jon Rahm, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, and Sergio Garcia, who by himself has accounted for as many career points (25 ½) as the entire 2021 U.S. team, will play the Americans’ power duo of Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth in the first match.
“I’m sure the whole world will be watching that one,’’ European captain Padraig Harrington said.
In the second match, Dustin Johnson and reigning British Open champion Collin Morikawa will play Paul Casey and Viktor Hovland, the youngest played on the European team.
Lee Westwood, the 48-year-old Englishman who’s playing in his record-tying 11th Ryder Cup, will pair with fellow Brit Matt Fitzpatrick to play Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger from the U.S. in the third match.
In the fourth and final morning match, reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year Patrick Cantlay and his good friend, Olympic gold medal winner Xander Schauffele, both Ryder Cup rookies, will play Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter.
Those are four fascinating matches, the first to begin at 8:05 a.m. (EDT).
Spieth and Thomas were one of the no-surprise pairings because of the success they’ve had together. They went 3-1 in the 2018 matches, outside of Paris. Spieth has a 7-1-2 combined record in foursomes in Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup play.
Garcia has a 10-4-3 career record in Ryder Cup foursomes with eight different partners.
U.S. captain Steve Stricker said he anticipated Europe playing Rahm and Garcia first and McIlroy in the fourth match.
The U.S. players sitting for the morning matches include Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English, Scottie Scheffler and Tony Finau.
For the European side, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry and Bernd Weisberger will sit in the morning.
Stricker wouldn’t say whether the four players sitting out the morning matches would play in the afternoon fourballs (best ball), though it would be an upset it that didn’t happen. Harrington said his plan was for all 12 of his players to play Friday.
Stricker, when making his captain’s picks, emphasized that a lot of what went into his decisions was players’ length. That made the fact DeChambeau will be sitting Friday morning somewhat of a surprise.
“We’re trying to make sure everyone gets a little bit of rest; that’s in back of our minds,’’ he said. “We can’t play everyone every session. [DeChambeau] is going to get his turn at some point. The good thing is all these guys have bought in. They know the plan. We’ve communicated that to them and they understand [the plan] and are all on board.’’
DeChambeau will almost certainly be paired with either Scheffler or English (he has practiced with both this week) in the afternoon fourballs.
In an interesting twist, only one of Harrington’s four morning pairings practiced together this week.
“We knew our partnerships well in advance,’’ Harrington said. “You don’t want to get bored playing with a guy [too much]. I was very keen with the players to mix with each other and get a full experience with other players on the team. From my personal experience, you want to turn up on Friday and still have that freshness, enthusiasm, excitement and intrigue when you’re going out there.’’
The U.S. team has traditionally has been dominated in foursomes by Europe, which won six of those eight matches in 2018 and went 5 ½ to 2 ½ in 2016 and 7-1 in 2014. The last time the U.S. got the better of Europe in alternate shot was in 2012, when they won five of the eight.