Keegan Bradley warned Team USA will be in ‘dire straits’ at the Ryder Cup if one pairing struggles at Bethpage

Add as preferred source on Google

With the Procore Championship in the rearview mirror, Keegan Bradley’s focus will now solely be on the Ryder Cup at Bethpage later this month.

The Procore Championship probably could not have gone a lot better for Keegan Bradley, with the US Ryder Cup captain seeing Scottie Scheffler win again while Ben Griffin, J.J. Spaun and Cameron Young all finished inside the top 10 at Silverado.

Bradley will now be preparing the pairings he hopes will help lead his side towards securing the 14.5 points they will need to regain the Samuel Ryder trophy in New York.

And it seems that there are plenty of routes the 39-year-old can head down when it comes to the lineups he puts out.

The American pairing Keegan Bradley desperately needs to deliver at the Ryder Cup

It would be a complete shock if Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay did not play together at some stage over the week. Meanwhile, Scheffler is great friends with Sam Burns, and had real success with Russell Henley at last year’s Presidents Cup.

But there are also wildcards to consider. It is going to be fascinating to see who gets paired with Bryson DeChambeau during the event. Meanwhile, Griffin and Spaun deserve prominent roles after outstanding years.

However, it seems that Ryan Lavner believes that there is one pairing Team USA simply cannot afford to see struggle. Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Lavner suggested that the Europeans will be in the driving seat should they get the better of Scheffler and Henley.

“As it relates to Scottie in particular, this is a player I believe has gone 3-7-3 in his last three cup competitions, dating back to the 2022 Presidents Cup. He made the point earlier in the week where he said it was so important for him this time around, just like the rest of the US team, to stay in his routine. If this was a major championship, there is no world in which he would be taking more than five weeks off before his last competitive start,” he said.

“And you now look at the stature of the Ryder Cup, the importance of the Ryder Cup, I know it’s a glorified exhibition, but it means a lot to these guys, it means a lot to the stakeholders, it means a lot to the fans, treating the Ryder Cup as a major championship, getting ready, staying sharp, getting in a warm-up or tune up event was really important to Scottie Scheffler.

“The US team cannot afford for him to have another week where he goes 0-2-2 or 0-3-1, he is a vital member of what is a pretty top heavy US team. And when you think Scottie Scheffler is likely to play with Russell Henley – who I think you could make an argument is the second best player on that American team – if those two falter as a partnership, I think they could potentially be in dire straits because this American team is not as deep as it was. They can’t absorb a sub-500 record for Scottie Scheffler as they have in the past.”

How Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley performed together at the 2024 Presidents Cup

It was surprising just how much Scheffler struggled at both the 2022 Presidents Cup and the Ryder Cup the following year. Remarkably, he did not manage to win a full point in either event.

Of course, he would not be the first star of the game to struggle in a team event. But his results were all the more baffling because he was a revelation at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.

Last year’s Presidents Cup appeared to be a potential turning point as he won three of his five matches, including twice alongside Henley.

Obviously, the level of the opposition in the Presidents Cup is not as high as it will be in New York. But the International team did manage to cause Scheffler plenty of problems two years earlier.

And with the Ryder Cup kicking off with foursomes on Friday morning, it would be no surprise at all if Scheffler and Henley were sent out in the top match to try and set the tone.