Thursday At The 2023 Ryder Cup
Let the games begin! Morning foursomes are set. Plus, an Opening Ceremony recap, Europe takes the Junior Ryder Cup, and NBC's telecast times.
The numbers have been run, the fleets of flunkies consulted and the practice rounds studied for deep meaning. Finally, 2023’s opening Ryder Cup session is set.
USA’s Zach Johnson will send out Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns against the fiery duo of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton. It’s just about Johnson’s boldest possible move given how these well-documented buddies did not light it up in a previous Cup partnership. Burns has some of the worst driving stats on the team while Scheffler is in the midst of revamping his putting. This also means five-time major winner and current PGA Champion Brooks Koepka sits.
Captain Luke Donald also went bold, sending out Viktor Hovland and rookie Ludvig Aberg in the second match against USA’s Max Homa and Brian Harman. According to assistant Captain Emeritus Davis Love, no one is playing better than Harman. We’ll know soon enough.
USA wraps up its final two sessions with the all-southern California duos of Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa against Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka, followed by Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay taking on the freshly-branded Fleetwood Mac (RIP Moliwood) consisting of Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood. If nothing else, the latter duo will test just how much the European Tour Group has in the licensing coffers for Don’t Stop, Dreams or The Chain.
The revelation of Friday’s first session pairings delivered immediate shock, sadness and (online) horror over Johnson leaving off the Justin Thomas/Jordan Spieth duo. Given that both have not had their greatest year while making the team as picks, it makes sense to hold them until Friday afternoon four-ball. They can then go out first following a morning of cheerleading.
Assuming they duo plays well, they’ll get to play both sessions Saturday.
Same for the duo of Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick, who seem like a good bet to kick off Europe’s afternoon session. Fitzpatrick will get his wish to finally play a Ryder Cup four-ball match after playing only alternate shot in his two previous appearances.
It is notable to see two of Europe’s strongest pieces in McIlroy and Fleetwood together instead of employing them with less-experienced partners. However, they could Go Your Own Way in four-ball play and take on different teammates.
Warming the Team USA bench Friday morning are Koepka, Wyndham Clark, Thomas and Spieth.
Sleeping in at the Waldorf are Europeans Nicolai Højgaard, Robert Macintyre, Rose and Fitzpatrick.
Elsewhere, Thursday’s final practice session was notable in reinforcing how the two “drivable” par 4’s at 5 and 16 are going to play as long one-shotters, with even Luke Donald confirming in his press conference that he expects no one to lay up at 16 during these matches.
This is only notable in highlighting how we could be deprived of some fun risk-reward decision-making. But this is in no way meant to diminish the incredible shot hit Thursday at the fifth by Viktor Hovland. Holy cow!
Opening Ceremony: Better Than Most!
By every Ryder Cup Opening Ceremony metric—volume of gaffes, lame attempts at pandering to the home nation, unnecessary introductions and players donning sunglasses to hide that they’ve fallen asleep—this was a streamlined winner.
You can watch the entire proceeding here.
The show started off ominously with a collection of stiff white guys—save for the energized DP World Tour No. 2 and Ryder Cup head Guy Kinnings—representing the various golf organizations by reading from a teleprompter. The bit screamed, we tried to get several famous Italians but they all had better things to do. Plus, win-win, we can feed the egos of our bosses!
As expected, the show opened and closed with admirably non-lipsynced performances from Tom Grennan, who sang in a language of undetermined origin.
Was that English? Italian? A hybrid?
Anyway, this is not an easy audience to play to and the rising star did a nice job in an outfit pandering to the baggy, pleated pants portion of the audience.