It is going to be fascinating to see how Keegan Bradley utilises Bryson DeChambeau during the Ryder Cup, with the LIV Golf star set to make his return to the event after four years.
The European side would be forgiven for feeling that stopping Bryson DeChambeau at Bethpage Black is going to be so important to their chances of victory.
DeChambeau has become one of the best players on the planet, particularly on the biggest stages. He managed to qualify automatically for Keegan Bradley‘s team despite only earning points in the major championships.
But obviously, Bradley faces a tricky decision in how he uses the 32-year-old.
Tony Finau warns Keegan Bradley what he must do with Bryson DeChambeau at the Ryder Cup
DeChambeau is unique; finding him a partner in foursomes is not a straightforward task. Some expect Cameron Young to play alongside DeChambeau because they have played a similar golf ball this year.
But sitting DeChambeau out of the opening session would also be a gamble. He is going to have such a large impact on the atmosphere in New York. He could really get the momentum going for the American side if he impresses on Friday morning.
And someone who thinks that DeChambeau simply has to play in the first session is Tony Finau. Speaking on Straight Facts Homie, Finau discussed the opening hole at Bethpage, and implored Bradley to put the two-time US Open champion centre stage straight away.
“It’s a dogleg right, and this is driver for everybody. Everybody’s going to be sending driver up towards this green. And to me, it’s a crime if we don’t send out Bryson first and let him send this tee shot at the green. It plays downhill about 20 yards and it doglegs, so to the front edge is only about 350, something like that to the front edge which Bryson is very capable of hitting,” he said.
“But you can see everyone hitting driver. You’re going to see a lot of birdies right out of the gate on number one. It’s a short hole, guys are going to be chipping into this green, so right out of the gate, you’re going to see action.”
What Tiger Woods told Tony Finau before the opening tee shot at the 2018 Ryder Cup
Finau knows what it is like to hit the opening tee shot in the Ryder Cup. It was his job in his debut in the event back in 2018 at Le Golf National.
It proved to be a successful bow for Finau, with him and Brooks Koepka winning their match against Justin Rose and Jon Rahm. But it appears that Tiger Woods did not do Finau many favours ahead of the match.
Finau once explained the warning Woods jokingly gave him in the team meeting the night before.
“2018 Ryder Cup, Jim Furyk asks me when I want to go, and me and Brooks were going to be paired together. We’re like, ‘yeah we’d like to go first’, and he’s like ‘well, JT and Jordan are going to go first, I’m going to have them lead off, so you guys will go second’. We’re like, ‘great’,” he said.
“He ends up coming back to us like, ‘actually, they said if you guys want to go first, you can go first’. So I was like, ‘alright great’. And Brooks comes to me and he’s like, ‘you want to hit the first tee shot?’ ‘No, I’ll give that honour to you’. ‘No, let me rephrase that, you’re going to hit the first tee shot’. Brooks gives me the opportunity to hit the first tee shot, and since we’re the away team in Paris, I’m literally going to be hitting the opening tee shot out of the whole Ryder Cup.
“So Tiger finds this out at the team meeting that night. Tiger looks at me and he’s like, ‘don’t F it up, kid’. That’s all he said. And then he kind of chuckles. Anyway, I go to sleep and all I’m thinking about is that first tee shot.
“I get to the first tee, 10,000 people around, MJ’s there, Michael Phelps, these guys are all there watching. There’s so much energy, and then all of a sudden, as soon as I teed the ball up, you could hear a pin drop. Never experienced anything like it in my life.”
That atmosphere was certainly electric at Le Golf National seven years ago. But it would be no surprise if it finds another gear next week in New York.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
