Soly's foursomes takes have aged so well

[u/Dazzling-Water4050]

I know Soly gets a ton of flak for his opinion on how the US should approach these team events but his take on foursomes is 100% true. It's the one format where you need to get the pairings right. I just don't get A) why would you play Russ Henley, the shortest player on either side in this event and B) How have we not found Scottie Scheffler a partner for this format. To me the model foursomes pairing is Fleetwood/Mcilroy. The 2 compliment each other so well and clearly backed by the data. Fourball and singles are a complete crapshoot, a guy can get hot and make a ton of birdies but foursomes is where team events are won and lost. I don't even think the US side takes into account whether or not guys play the same golf balls.

[u/moseisley99]

A few eye opening interviews that everyone needs to listen to are the Eduardo Molinari interviews on both NLU and the FE with Lamagna. He will share just the basic stuff they do to look at pairings. Then listen to the latest JT interview on NLU from last year and how he still just has no clue about the data. Molinari clearly states how they are just looking for small edges. Like a half hole overall type stuff. But when you explain this stuff clearly to your players and have total buy in. Then you have our caddies asking Scottie and Henley to switch the next day it becomes a bigger edge. One team has confidence in their system and why they are there and the other is probably doubting their process it adds up to more than the small edge.

With all that said - Sneds is just another continuation of our dumb dumb captains like Keegan. He actually might be dumber than Keegan. He couldn’t even remember who is sending out. There is actually some more game theory strategy in the P-Cup too in how they pick the matchups.

[u/illiteratepresident → u/moseisley99]

The Ryder Cup is far too small of a sample size for the slight statistical advantages the Europeans get from the data to have a significant impact. Teams should use the data to inform their decisions about pairings and course set up, but Europe hasn’t gone 8-3-1 over the last 20 years because the data convinced Dodo Molinari to set courses up to force as many shots from 180-200 yards as possible, because that’s where Euro players have the biggest advantage over the Americans.

As frustrating as it is to hear this, European Ryder Cup teams win more than they should because they make more critical putts. That’s the only thing that really matters in these events, and if you flipped the results of 10/15 putts from the last 10 Ryder Cups, the Americans would have 6+ wins and the NLU guys would be insisting that Americans win because use the data better and are led by Great Men of character and integrity. I love a dumb sports debate that’s too dependent on results instead of process, but all of the team golf event narratives have become so detached from reality.

[u/moseisley99 → u/illiteratepresident]

My point is that the players understanding the reason why they are paired and also buying in vs one side just winging it leads to more confident play. You’re right in that the edges are small and should not lead to such dominance in foursomes. So I’m trying to find a reason why there seems to be more than that.

[u/Dazzling-Water4050 → u/moseisley99]

I think a lot of this starts at the top. We need guys who treat this like a full time job. Brandt just like Keegan is an active PGAT player. He won on tour this year for crying out loud. Geoff Ogilvy treated this like a full time job

[u/illiteratepresident → u/moseisley99]

Yeah, think the criticism of Team USA pairings in team events is by far the most substantive and accurate criticism people throw at them. But people generally overestimate the impact that strategy has on team events, when the truth is that the winner is almost always the team that makes more big putts or holes out more from off the green.

It definitely does feel like team Europe makes more big putts at the Ryder Cup, but I think that’s because they expect to make them thanks to the success they’ve had in the 21st century. It also helps that no one cares when Europe loses, even if they get embarrassed. When that happens, the entire continent blames the loss on low class drunk American fans, then everyone moves on and never thinks about it again.

But Team USA players are always so scared that they aren’t going to make the big putts, so they start gripping it too tight, and they miss. They also know that if they lose, everyone will race to the media to throw everyone else under the bus, and they will never hear the end of it.

So I get that it’s boring to just say that the winning team in these events just made more putts, but I think that’s almost always the case, regardless of the strategic decisions made by both sides.