Keegan Bradley says the U.S. Ryder Cup team has a plan.
And that the Americans are comfortable with that plan.
So, yes, they’re going to stick to that plan, the American captain said Friday night at Bethpage Black. But the decision comes as part of the plan — the foursomes pairing of Collin Morikawa and Harris English — was ranked last by a data group heading into the event, then lost 5 and 4 on Friday morning to the European duo of Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood.
Bradley said he remained confident, though. And Saturday morning, as his team faces a 5.5-2.5 overall deficit, Morikawa and English will again play foursomes, and they’ll do so again against McIlroy and Fleetwood.
“Be an exciting match, and we’re sticking to our plan,” Bradley said. “We’re not going to panic. We’re not going to panic and make those sort of mistakes. We’re going to stick to what we know.
“We have a lot of confidence in them.”
The move comes as the Data Golf website ranked all 132 potential pairings for each side — and the Morikawa-English combo was 132nd. The rank received validation by the Friday morning defeat, and Morikawa and English didn’t play in the four-ball matches later Friday.
Did Bradley’s team have different data, though? Was the decision based on feel?
He said the call was a bit of both.
“They were really bummed out that they lost their match today,” Bradley said. “They were eager to get back out on the course, and that’s why we did that.”
Would Bradley ever deviate from his plan, though?
He said he would. Just not now. He said he’s not shaken.
“Yeah, I think there’s definitely some things that you have to adapt to,” Bradley said. “We ran into some really incredible play by the Europeans today. So you know, we look at the data. We look at the strokes gained. In the morning session, we just didn’t make any putts. Really, hardly any at all. Everything else was pretty good. We actually hit more fairways and less greens.
“But that middle match with Collin and Harris, they went up against a final group that shot five-, six-, seven-under, something like that, in alternate shot, which is tough to beat.”
Might there be one adjustment, though?
A reporter also asked Bradley if he was going to change the order of when his players would tee off in the alternate shot matches. And the U.S. captain answered this way:
“Yeah, I think we’ll keep that to our team and what we’re going to do there.”
