Keegan Bradley recently announced his 12-man United States team for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
Bradley chose not to be a playing captain and picked Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, and Cameron Young instead.
The captain’s next key decisions will be to select the pairings for the foursomes and fourballs formats in New York.
PGA Tour winner Smylie Kaufman has shared who he would pick for the foursomes on Friday morning, the first session of the Ryder Cup.
Smylie Kaufman picks United States foursomes pairings for Ryder Cup
The Europeans effectively won the 2023 Ryder Cup in the first session, winning all four foursomes matches on Friday morning.
With that in mind, Bradley and the United States team will be determined to get off to a strong start at Bethpage Black.
Kaufman is adamant that Bryson DeChambeau needs to play in the first match and that Scottie Scheffler should be in the next.
“A team of Scottie and Russell. That one is set in stone,” Kaufman said. “They’re going to play. When they play, I don’t know. We’ll put them out second because Bryson has to go in the first pairing. Bryson and Cam.
“So you’ve got Bryson and Cam, Scottie and Russell, Xander and Patrick, and then I feel like J.J. is going to end up playing foursomes.
“That seems like a no-brainer for him to play, or Morikawa. One of those two guys is going to play in foursomes, and I’m not sure which one I would lean right now.
“I would probably lean J.J. in the current moment until I see some more stuff from Morikawa at Napa. But J.J. and maybe JT or Harris English is where my brain goes right now.”
Kaufman added that he’s concerned about the lack of foursomes experience in the United States Ryder Cup team.
“That’s the problem. There’s nobody with experience playing foursomes,” he continued. “The big question mark to me is whether J.J. or Griffin sneaks into the foursomes.”
Smylie Kaufman is not convinced Collin Morikawa’s game suits Bethpage Black
While Kaufman thinks that Collin Morikawa’s game is suited to foursomes, he’s not so sure about his suitability to Bethpage Black.
Morikawa only ranks 141st on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting, losing 0.319 shots per round compared to the average player, which could be an issue at the Ryder Cup.
“Morikawa was 3-0-1 at Whistling Straits and 1-3 in Rome, 0-1 in foursomes. Morikawa makes the most sense because of his ball-striking,” Kaufman explained.
“He can put a ball in play, but this golf course isn’t about putting the golf ball in play as much as it is about hitting far and in play and being able to make putts.
“Making putts at this golf course is going to be so important because you’re going to be able to make a lot of putts. They’re bigger greens with not so much slope, so you’re going to see putts holed from everywhere.”
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