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MEDINAH, Ill. – Another Presidents Cup celebration was underway on the 18th green, with the Americans mobbing Jacob Bridgeman after the rookie earned the clinching point during a historic day for the home team.
They’d staged a memorable final-day rally here at Medinah, winning a record 9 ½ of the available 12 points in singles to turn what had been a daunting three-point deficit into yet another ho-hum victory. Players hugged and wrapped each other in Cubs W flags. They posed for pictures and began double- and triple-fisting Michelob Ultras. Under immense pressure to avoid becoming the first U.S. Presidents Cup team to lose on home soil, the revelry was well-earned.
But the eventual margin of victory – 17-13 – won’t tell the full story of this Presidents Cup, and it remains to be seen whether the American brain trust will recognize how close they came to complete and utter embarrassment.
This was Brandt Snedeker’s first tour as captain, and it almost certainly will be his last. A feisty, scrappy and antsy competitor, Sneds brought many of the same mile-a-minute characteristics to his captaincy, seeming to lack the necessary temperament and calm decision-making processes that define the best leaders. At times, he seemed completely overwhelmed by the role, running late for pairings announcements, forgetting players’ names and even admitting, in a TV interview, that his “head was spinning a little bit.” He repeatedly lamented his mistakes and screwups.
Though it was refreshing to hear such personal accountability in a team setting, these were also admissions of incompetence.
“I don’t think anybody knows the weight a captain carries on their shoulders all week,” Snedeker said afterward. “Every decision you make carries a serious consequence.”
And he nearly cost the Americans the cup.
He opted to use red-hot Jacob Bridgeman – the No. 1 putter on Tour, a top-5 birdie machine – exclusively in foursomes, not fourballs, where Bridgeman’s chief advantage was negated, and paired him with fellow short-knocker Russell Henley at wide-open, beefy Medinah. (They went 0-2.)
He put high-variance Justin Thomas in the alternate-shot format because Snedeker “kind of felt like I’d roll with it” based on Thomas’ strong play individually on Thursday. (He went from first-to-worst, statistically.)
Snedeker sat Scottie Scheffler on Saturday afternoon after a victory, and without Scheffler’s input, and without informing him ahead of his TV interview, creating an awkward hmm-now-what? moment for both the world No. 1 and Sam Burns, who was sent out later without his typical foursomes partner (he played poorly and lost).
And on Saturday night, Snedeker and his assistants – led by 2025 Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and upcoming captain Jim Furyk – committed malpractice with their frontloaded singles lineup by nominating Scheffler and Chris Gotterup first instead of matching them against the Internationals’ stronger opponents. It was self-sabotage: It allowed Snedeker’s counterpart, Geoff Ogilvy, to sacrifice his weakest pair and diminished the Americans’ sizable advantage. It didn’t end up mattering, with the American talent and depth overwhelming the opponent over four days and 30 points, but even in hindsight Snedeker didn’t recognize the strategic miscue. In fact, he doubled down.
“I messed up the snake draft this week, and that was the first time I got it right – and those guys were ready to walk through that door for me. I’m just so damn proud of this team,” Snedeker said. “I’m tired of hearing how these guys aren’t close. I’m tired of hearing how we can’t play team golf. Guys just proved it right then and there.”
Uh, no. That wasn’t the lesson of this Presidents Cup.
It’s that, even in victory, the Americans still lack a cohesive and coherent plan for team play. Too many pairings make too little sense, a confounding mix of data and vibes, friendship and familiarity. It wasn’t a coincidence that Snedeker was unable to adequately explain the thought process behind certain partnerships, when it appears the core principles for pairings – twinning in fourballs, opposites in foursomes – are either being blatantly ignored or disregarded.
Moving forward, it’s imperative that Furyk tabs savvy, level-headed assistants with defined roles and shores up his back-end staff with the game’s best statisticians and strategists. Billion-dollar businesses don’t function on guts and instincts. The European Ryder Cup team learned this decades ago, and yet it still seems to escape U.S. leadership.
Amid the celebration on Sunday evening, after all of the high-fiving and back-slapping, Snedeker didn’t sense any cause for concern. History will remember them as winners, record-setting champions, and that’s all that mattered.
“This team is going to be a problem in Ireland!” he woofed.
It wasn’t exactly clear what he meant, of course.
Because the biggest problem the Americans currently face is largely internal.
