ROME — Everyone’s looking for an edge.
At this week’s Ryder Cup, which begins Friday with the first matches in the three-day team golf spectacle at Marco Simone Country Club, the European team believes its edge is in the foursomes matches, which is the alternate-shot format.
This is why Europe’s Luke Donald, as the home captain, opted to begin the competition with foursomes matches on Friday morning, followed by four-ball matches, which is the best-ball format.
“We feel like as a team, statistically, we are stronger in foursomes within our team than we would be in four-balls,’’ Donald said. “Why not get off to a fast start?’’
This is an interesting shift in philosophy considering that, as the home team, Europe has opted to open with four-ball matches every year since 1993, which happens to be the last time the Americans won on European soil.
The foursomes element to the Ryder Cup has been a confounding one, because there is a narrative that the Americans don’t play well in alternate shot.
Nevertheless, since Continental Europe joined the Ryder Cup in 1979, Europe only holds a 77-73 edge over the U.S. in foursomes.
The Americans, in fact, beat Europe in six of the eight foursomes matches in the last Ryder Cup, in 2021 at Whistling Straits.
But in matches held in Europe since 1993, the Europeans lead 62½-49½ in foursomes.
So, this seems to be more of a road game problem for the Americans than it does a format issue.
“I think of myself as a really good match play player,” U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark said this week. “I had a lot of success in college in match play. But as far as getting comfortable with alternate shot, it is tough. The rhythm of it is so tough because you might not hit a putt over five feet for seven holes and the next thing you know you have a 30-footer and you’re like, ‘I don’t know the speed of the greens.’ Little things like that that makes it difficult.
“None of us really have that much experience. If you really think about it, sure, guys play in Ryder Cups, but that’s the only time they play, and then they play it two years later.”
Alternate shot is more prevalent in junior tournaments in Europe than it is in the U.S., and that has been attributed as a potential reason for European success.
In 2014 at Gleneagles in Scotland, the U.S. was doomed by the foursomes portion of the competition.
The Americans won both four-balls sessions by a point and lost the singles 6½-5½, but they were beaten 7-1 in foursomes, and that proved to be the difference.
Two years later, though, the U.S. set a tone for the week with a 4-0 whitewash over Europe in the foursomes in the opening session in 2016 and that catapulted the U.S. to its first victory in eight years.
Two years after that, though, the Americans lost the Friday foursomes 4-0 and that led to a Europe victory in France.
The U.S. team has not won the foursomes on European soil since 2002 and the foursomes have not been won by a visiting team at a Ryder Cup since 2004.
Wyndham Clark, one of the four Ryder Cup first timers on the U.S. side, spoke about how young this team is and how it’s not laden with baggage from the 30 years of failure by the Americans against Europe on the road, saying “ignorance is bliss.’’
“None of us really have that much experience,’’ Clark said of playing foursomes. “Sure, guys play in Ryder Cups every year, but that’s the only time they play, and then they play it two years later. We’re all the best players in the world, and when it comes down to it, we’ve just got to hit the golf ball where we see it and do what we do every week.’’
Rickie Fowler, one of the U.S. veterans who’s lost in Europe twice, said he believes foursomes “demands a little bit more out of you — a little more pressure.”
Pressure is exactly what Donald is trying to put on the Americans with his choice of foursomes to get the matches going on Friday morning.
“As Captain, you have to be confident,’’ he said. “I certainly have a lot of belief in my team. I know it’s going to be a difficult next few days. The U.S. team are really strong, we know that. We are coming off our worst defeat ever in a Ryder Cup.’’
