SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – After his team was thoroughly dominated in the second session of the Ryder Cup, Jim Furyk is doubling down.
Furyk opted to stick with the same four pairings that gave his team an early 3-1 lead, putting out a nearly identical fourballs lineup for the second straight day. He’ll be banking on a similar result given that the Americans now face a 5-3 deficit after losing all four foursomes sessions Friday at Le Golf National.
Here’s a look at the fourball pairings that will kick things off Saturday morning (all times ET):
2:10 a.m.: Brooks Koepka/Tony Finau (U.S.) vs. Rory McIlroy/Sergio Garcia (Europe)
Koepka and Finau rallied to snatch a point from their opening match Friday before watching the afternoon bloodbath from the sidelines. Now the two bombers will be reunited again, this time against two of Europe’s most decorated veterans. McIlroy will look to improve on his fourball form after failing to make a single birdie on his own ball in a loss alongside Thorbjorn Olesen, while Garcia will make his fourball debut after a foursomes win with Alex Noren.
2:25 a.m.: Dustin Johnson/Rickie Fowler (U.S.) vs. Paul Casey/Tyrrell Hatton (Europe)
Johnson and Fowler will play together for the third straight session, having both won in fourballs and lost in foursomes decidedly. They’ll take on the English duo who lost to Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth in their opening match before watching their teammates rally during the afternoon session.
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2:40 a.m.: Tiger Woods/Patrick Reed (U.S.) vs. Francesco Molinari/Tommy Fleetwood
This will be the first rematch of the Ryder Cup, as Fleetwood and Molinari stormed from behind to beat the Americans Friday morning en route to notching the lone European point of the session. Both Woods and Reed sat out the subsequent foursomes matches, though Furyk’s squad will surely be looking for a spark from its emotional leader and its most decorated player.
2:55 a.m.: Jordan Spieth/Justin Thomas (U.S.) vs. Ian Poulter/Jon Rahm (Europe)
Think this match will feature any emotion? Spieth and Thomas remain one of Furyk’s stalwart pairings, having played each of the first two sessions en route to a 1-1 overall record. Spieth especially was a star of the morning fourballs wave thanks to a hot putter. He’ll need to keep rolling them in if the Americans are to take down the fiery duo of Rahm and Poulter, who are teaming for the first time after Rahm’s narrow loss alongside Justin Rose and Poulter’s foursomes victory alongside McIlroy.
With Furyk leaning on the same eight players for fourballs, it means that Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson sit for the second straight morning. European captain Thomas Bjorn has chosen to bench Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson, Thorbjorn Olesen and Alex Noren.
