After the United States was walloped 5-0 in Friday’s five foursomes at the Presidents Cup, captain Brandt Snedeker is relying on a mix of old and new to start Saturday off right.
Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns will head out together for the third time in as many sessions, but for the first time they will play in the anchor match instead of the opener in morning four-ball at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago.
Their opponents on the International team — which leads the competition 7-3 in a surprising turn — will be Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune.
Justin Thomas and Jackson Koivun will play in the opening match against Australia’s Min Woo Lee and South Korea’s Sungjae Im. The Korean pairing of Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim will stay together for the third consecutive session and go up against Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark. And Chris Gotterup and Cameron Young will take on Canadians Nick Taylor and Corey Conners before the Scheffler/Burns tandem tees off last.
Of the four American pairings, three of them won a point on Thursday in the initial four-ball (best-ball) session. The only new combination is the long drivers Gotterup and Young, neither of whom have collected a point so far.
Snedeker conceded at his press conference that the U.S. had to “look at” its game plan.
“We’ve got a lot of high-character guys in our room,” the first-time captain said. “I love the way the guys competed today. It’s a long golf tournament. I keep telling those guys this is a football game and we’re not even at halftime yet. We’ve got three more sessions to go, a lot of golf in front of us. I’m really confident in our guys. I’m really confident in what they bring to the table. I’m excited about this challenge.”
Scheffler and Burns beat Lee and Im 1 up on Thursday before Conners and Taylor struck back Friday with a 1-up win over the tandem.
Matsuyama and Hisatsune reunite for the International side after they scored their team’s first point with a 3-and-1 win over Young and Xander Schauffele. The Kim/Kim pairing is the hottest one going, having defeated Gotterup and Patrick Cantlay 3 and 2 on Thursday and Cantlay/Schauffele 4 and 3 in a Friday foursomes rout.
Sitting out the Saturday morning session for the U.S. are Cantlay, Schauffele, Russell Henley and Jacob Bridgeman. The International side is giving Australian veteran Adam Scott the morning off along with New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, Colombia’s Nico Echavarria and South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Those players may participate in the Saturday afternoon foursomes session, however.