Some fans were left scratching their heads on Thursday evening when Keegan Bradley announced his third pairing of the opening foursomes session.
Bradley announced a strong start to his foursomes line-up with Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas leading the Americans out at Bethpage Black ahead of Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley. Then the third pairing came out, which was Collin Morikawa and Harris English.
They’re up against a formidable duo in Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood who have opened as favorites for a European point, but there is one eye-opening reason why fans are questioning the Morikawa/English team.
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That’s because Data Golf ranks them as the worst pairing out of every single foursomes team that can be made up from the USA’s 12 men.
Out of 132 possible foursomes duos, Morikawa and English rank 132nd in the rankings’ Optimal Pairings list for the US side.
Data Golf ranks them at a +1.16 skill level, which is the lowest of all 132 possible pairings and well short of the +2.65 that no.1 pairing Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau combine for.
That is well short of their opponents’ +2.15 rating, which suggests a European victory in game number three if things go as expected.
This is incredible. Obviously data isn’t the be all and end all, but it’s hard to get your head around the English-Morikawa pairing. Feeling *very* confident Rory & Tommy get the point in that match. https://t.co/YjdzgKNnuDSeptember 25, 2025
Of course these are just numbers and it is still a very strong team with both men currently ranking inside the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking.
Luckily for Bradley the Ryder Cup is played on a golf course and not a golf statistics website, but the pairing’s numbers on Data Golf compared to their team-mates are certainly a little eye-opening.
The lead-out US pairing of DeChambeau and Thomas rank 32nd out of 132, Scheffler and Henley are 6th out of 132 and Schauffele and Cantlay are 43rd.
Whether the stats translate to what actually happens remains to be seen on the course, where the first group get underway at 7.10am local time on Friday.
Bradley left out US Open champion JJ Spaun, Ben Griffin, Cameron Young and Sam Burns from the opening session, with Luke Donald sitting Justin Rose, Rasmus Hojgaard, Sepp Straka and Shane Lowry.
Here’s how the morning foursomes matches stack up in Data Golf’s Optimal Pairings list…
Ryder Cup day 1 foursomes Data Golf rankings: Optimal pairingsUSADeChambeau and Thomas: 32ndScheffler and Henley: 6thMorikawa and English: 132ndSchauffele and Cantlay 43rdEUROPERahm and Hatton: 25thAberg and Fitzpatrick: 41stMcIlroy and Fleetwood: 3rdMacIntyre and Hovland: 73rd
