The United States won the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal in September, taking the trophy 18.5-11.5 over the International team. The margin obscures a format-specific problem: American pairs went 3-5 in foursomes matches, the alternate-shot discipline that decides tight Ryder Cups. Europe has won four of the last five Ryder Cups in part by drilling foursomes pairings for months before competition. The U.S. treats the format as an afterthought.
Captain Jim Furyk fielded twelve players across four sessions of team matches. In foursomes, his strongest pairing—Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay—went 2-0. No other American duo won more than one foursomes match. Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley went 1-1. Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala went 0-2, pulled after the second session. Furyk tried seven different foursomes combinations across eight total matches, a rotation pace that suggests uncertainty rather than depth.
The International team, playing without a single top-ten world-ranked player, won five of eight foursomes sessions by leaning into rhythm players who know each other's cadence. Mike Weir paired Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith for three straight foursomes; they went 2-1. Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im went 2-0 before Matsuyama withdrew with back spasms. The format rewards familiarity. The U.S. roster, stacked with six of the world's top twelve players as of mid-September, could not convert that talent edge in a discipline that penalizes solo instincts.
The 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Ireland will feature five foursomes sessions across three days, the same split as every Ryder Cup since 2004. Europe's captain, Luke Donald, has already begun informal pairing audits during DP World Tour events. His likely roster includes players who grew up playing foursomes in junior golf and competed in the format during Walker Cup and European Amateur campaigns. The American development pipeline runs through junior stroke play and college tournaments that do not include alternate-shot formats. That gap does not close in the eighteen months between now and late September 2027.
Furyk's lineup decisions in Montreal also revealed a risk-management style that conflicts with modern Ryder Cup roster construction. He benched Tony Finau for both Saturday sessions despite Finau's 4-1-0 Presidents Cup record entering the week. Finau went 2-1 overall in Canada, playing only singles and one four-ball match. Keegan Bradley, named 2025 Ryder Cup captain in July, will inherit a roster-building question: does the U.S. prioritize horses for courses, betting on in-form players, or does it weight players who have proven foursomes chemistry even when recent results sag?
The U.S. has now won ten consecutive Presidents Cups, a dominance streak that generates zero leverage in Ryder Cup preparation. The International team does not resemble Europe in talent depth, course setup preferences, or foursomes fluency. Winning in Montreal by seven points tells American stakeholders nothing about whether the roster can go 4-4 in foursomes at Adare Manor, the minimum required to stay competitive through team sessions. The U.S. went 6-10 in foursomes across the last two Ryder Cups, both losses.
Keegan Bradley takes over U.S. captaincy in January 2025. His first decision will be whether to mandate foursomes practice rounds during 2025 and 2026 PGA Tour events with no-cut team formats, including the Zurich Classic. The Tour has resisted formal alternate-shot preparation because it disrupts sponsor pro-am schedules and television windows. That organizational friction has a price. Europe's Ryder Cup task force, formalized after the 2014 loss at Gleneagles, embedded foursomes prep into DP World Tour operations. The U.S. rebuilt its task force after losing at Marco Simone in 2023 but has not yet addressed format-specific skill gaps in a procedural way.
American golf's structural advantages—deeper Tour, better college system, larger junior participation base—do not transfer to a format that rewards practiced rhythm over individual firepower. The gap is coachable. Whether it gets coached depends on decisions Bradley makes in the next six months, before his roster takes shape and before informal pairings harden into assumed combinations. The 2027 matches are eighteen months out. Foursomes chemistry takes longer than that to build if you start from scratch.
The takeaway
U.S. went 3-5 in foursomes at Presidents Cup; Europe wins Ryder Cups in that format, and the gap won't close without procedural changes.
Editorial & Disclosure Notice: This article was written with artificial intelligence from public sources and is published without individual human review. Artificial intelligence and other digital tools are also used for research, analysis, editing, formatting, and production. Errors, omissions, outdated information, or inaccuracies may occur. References to companies, brands, products, services, organizations, or individuals are for informational and editorial purposes and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, affiliation, partnership, or approval unless expressly stated. All trademarks and other intellectual property remain the property of their respective owners. Opinions, analysis, estimates, and commentary are informational only and should not be construed as financial, investment, legal, tax, medical, procurement, or other professional advice. Information may be corrected, clarified, or updated after publication. Corrections or removal requests: jenny@pops4.com.
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