U.S. hopes it has golden pairings
Let the rout, er, competition begin.
The opening session of the 12th Presidents Cup begins Thursday at Liberty National, where the U.S. team is heavily favored to capture the cup again over the International side.
The Americans have won nine of the 11 Presidents Cups played, losing one and tying one. The International Team is looking to break a sixmatch losing streak and has never won on U.S. soil.
With that, the f irstsession pairings were announced Wednesday, with the first match looking like a U.S. victory. Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas, the certain PGA Tour Player of the Year with his f ive victories and the $10 million FedExCup bonus he just won last week, will bat leadoff for the U.S. against Hideki Matsuyama and Charl Schwartzel.
Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar will play Adam Scott and Jhonnatan Vegas in the second match, followed by U.S. Ryder Cup studs Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed against International rookies Si Woo Kim and Emiliano Grillo on what, on paper, looks like the most lopsided match of the session.
U.S. Open winner BrooksKoe pk a will team with Daniel Berger against Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace in the fourth match, and Phil Mickelson and Kevin Kisner will play Aussies Jason Day and Marc Leishman in the final match of the first day.
The opening session is foursomes, which is an alternate-shot format. That will be followed by five fourball (best ball) matches on Friday, then four foursomes matches and four four-ball matches Saturday and 12 singles matches Sunday.
The winner of the Presidents Cup must accumulate at least 15 ½ of the possible 30 points.
“I can’t wait for 1 : 05 [Thursday] afternoon to get this thing going and to see how these matches play out,’’ U.S. captain Steve Stricker said.
“If you look at these five matches, I think there’s going to be some doozies there,’’ International captain Nick Price said.
The pairing process for the Presidents Cup is done d i ffe re n t ly than the Ryder Cup, which is a blind process, with each captain handing in his pairings and matching them up as they go, one through four, for example.
The Presidents Cup pairing session was done live, with Stricker and his assistant captains sitting on one side of a partition with a computer in front of them and Price and his assistants on the other.
Asked which were the matchups he liked that he got, Stricker said with a smile, “Not telling.’’
Stricker has to be particularly delighted with the opening match and the third match, which looks like a potential blowout with Spieth and Reed taking on the rookies.
“I’m excited to play against the No. 1 players in the world, so I’m ready to play right now,’’ Kim said.
“It’s going to be interesting. Si Woo and I, we were a great team [Tuesday in practice],’’ Grillo said. “We played unbelievable, and if we give ourselves the chance to win the match, we’re going to take it.’’
Stricker’s pairing of Mickelson, who’s played in all 11 Presidents Cups, and Kisner, who’s playing in his first, was all about personalities.
“Phil is a guy that likes fiery players, and Kiz is one of those players,’’ Stricker said. “He talks a lot of smack when we’re out there having fun and playing. He’s a little bulldog, and Phil really gravitates towards that. They are very excited to go out with one another.’’
Said Kisner of the pairing: “It doesn’t get any better than that, does it?’’
“Phil and I play a lot of golf together, and we have a good relationship on the trash-talking,’’ Kisner said. “I love the way he always grinds it out and gets it together, and he lives for these moments, so that brings out the best in him.’’