U.S. Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk acknowledged Tuesday that the Americans’ recent poor record in foursomes play is “not an anomaly” and that he’s actively working to correct it in time for next year’s matches at Adare Manor.
Speaking alongside European captain Luke Donald at a year-to-go event in Ireland, Furyk conceded that the U.S. team has an alternate-shot problem – the Americans are 8-26 in that format dating to the 2023 Ryder Cup.
They suffered a 5-0 session sweep for the second time in three years at the Presidents Cup, necessitating a final-day rally to avoid just the second-ever loss in 16 tries against the Internationals.
Furyk was an assistant for U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker’s team at Medinah.
“It’s not an anomaly,” Furyk told reporters Tuesday. “There’s some issues, we understand that. (It’s) not something I’m very happy with. I plan on making some changes.”
That mostly involves how the Americans will prepare during the run-up for the Ryder Cup. He is already planning a prospective team scouting trip to Adare Manor next summer.
Furyk said that he and his support staff, including the analytics team, need to do a better job of pairings and putting players in position to be successful.
“But I don’t think we’ve been preparing for those matches in the proper way,” he said. “I will promise you we’ll be prepared.
“I’m going to ask this team to do more than any other American team has in the past.”
When speaking generally about his process for pairings, Furyk said that, more than the stats or player personalities, he is first looking at fit for the golf course. In hindsight, he said, his four captain’s picks for the 2018 Ryder Cup – Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Tony Finau – may not have been the “horses for the course,” given their collective wildness off the tee and the punishing setup that week at Le Golf National with tighter fairways and thicker rough. Furyk’s four picks went a combined 2-10 that week en route to another American road loss.
“We’ll be prepared, we’ll be ready to go in that format, and hopefully we can showcase our talent,” Furyk said. “We have too much depth to have that poor record in alternate shot.”
