ROME – Shane Lowry is itching for some Ryder Cup redemption alongside pal Rory McIlroy.
Two years ago at Whistling Straits, Lowry debuted in the biennial matches with McIlroy as his four-ball partner, and the pair were subsequently routed by Tony Finau and Harris English, 4&3. They didn’t team up again that week as the Europeans lost by a record-setting score of 19-9.
“I think we would love to play together, and we'd love to go out there at some stage,” Lowry said Tuesday at Marco Simone, site of this week’s matches. “We probably feel like we didn't do ourselves justice in four-balls at Whistling Straits, and I think maybe we'd like the opportunity to go at it again and try and win a point this time.”
But will Europe’s Captain, Luke Donald, provide that chance?
If anything is kept close to the vest in this week’s Ryder Cup lead-up, it’s the foursomes and four-ball pairings. Captains have tons of information at their disposal when it comes to formulating those partnerships, from analytics to personality tests to player lobbying.
“We deal in the objective and subjective,” U.S. Captain Zach Johnson. “There are numerous factors.”
But their final decisions remain behind lock and key until they can be unveiled. Sure, some pairings can be easily guessed from history and after three days of practice – it’s almost a certainty that Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele will play both foursomes sessions together after going 2-0 together in 2021; and Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas could team four times, which they did in 2018, going 3-1, and most recently at last year’s Presidents Cup, where they went 4-0. Both sets of U.S. pairs played all three days of practice in the same foursome this week.
“We just have a really good time,” Schauffele said of he and Cantlay, “and when we get things going, it sort of feels like we kind of kick into cruise control.”
The Americans’ 12-man roster has several more duos that make sense. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns are best friends, and they teamed three times at the 2022 Presidents Cup, though to mixed results, 0-2-1. Max Homa and Wyndham Clark practiced as a pair last week at Whisper Rock in Scottsdale, Arizona, but Homa also is close with fellow Cal Bear Collin Morikawa while Clark is a mentee of fellow Oklahoma State alum Rickie Fowler, who plays the same ball as Morikawa. Brooks Koepka might not have a clear partner, though Brian Harman possesses a similar mental toughness and Koepka was grouped twice with Scheffler in practice.
“If any two of us on the team are playing really good golf, it doesn't matter what the data says, I think,” Morikawa said. “But the hard thing is that we do revert back to our data and revert back to our averages at some point.”
On Team Europe, a changing of the guard leaves Donald with room to try out new partnerships. And without past mainstays Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter in the fold, there’s no slam-dunk pairing for the home side.
McIlroy and Lowry are definitely an option. Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland teamed up twice in 2021, but they weren’t a part of any groupings during this week’s practice. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton tied a four-ball match two years ago, though they only practiced once together, on Tuesday.
“I think we're both fairly similar, pretty fiery people,” Hatton said of he and Rahm.
But judging who played with whom in practice, it would surprise no one if Hatton drew some time alongside Swedish rookie Ludvig Åberg; they have played in the same group all three days (and play the same ball) while Aberg also got two days grouped with Hovland.
Justin Rose was grouped twice with each of Matt Fitzpatrick, Robert MacIntyre and Nicolai Højgaard. Rahm had two days together with both Hovland and Sepp Straka. And although there were rumours McIlroy could well be partnered with Åberg at some point this week, the fact they didn't play together once suggests that might not be the case.
It's very much a toss-up as there are so many factors, though McIlroy downplays one of them: the ball.
“I think all these golf balls react pretty similar with a driver,” McIlroy said. “It's more the iron shots and around the greens. If I'm playing with a guy that uses a different golf ball, I can just hit his golf ball off the tee. He's able to hit it into the green and we go from there. Vice versa; he can hit my golf ball off the tee, and I can hit my ball into the green and do that. Yeah, it can get a little tricky and you're chipping and putting and different feels of balls. … Say the other golf ball spins 200 or 300 more RPMs more than your golf ball, that makes a huge difference into the wind. So just trying to get comfortable with that in some ways and trying to be mindful of it.
“But I don't think it presents a huge challenge. I think guys are pretty much adaptable.”
Ryder Cup practice round groupings
THURSDAY
Europe – Højgaard, Rahm, Lowry, Straka; Fleetwood, Rose, MacIntyre, McIlroy; Fitzpatrick, Hovland, Åberg, Hatton
U.S. – Spieth, Thomas, Scheffler, Burns; Harman, Clark, Koepka, Homa; Fowler, Schauffele, Cantlay, Morikawa
WEDNESDAY
Europe – Hovland, Fleetwood, Straka, Rahm; Åberg, Lowry, Hatton, MacIntyre; McIlroy, Fitzpatrick, Højgaard, Rose
U.S. – Homa, Clark, Fowler, Harman; Thomas, Morikawa, Spieth, Burns; Schauffele, Scheffler, Koepka, Cantlay
TUESDAY
Europe – Fleetwood, Straka, Lowry, McIlroy; Rahm, Hovland, Hatton, Åberg; Fitzpatrick, Rose, MacIntyre, Højgaard
U.S. – Spieth, Cantlay, Schauffele, Thomas; Morikawa, Harman, Fowler, Homa; Scheffler, Koepka, Clark, Burns
Past Ryder Cup partnerships
2021 RYDER CUP
Foursomes – Spieth/Thomas (2), Cantlay/Schauffele (2)
Four-ball – Cantlay/Thomas, Koepka/Spieth, Fleetwood/Hovland (2), McIlroy/Lowry, Rahm/Hatton, Lowry/Hatton
2018 RYDER CUP
Foursomes – Spieth/Thomas (2)
Four-ball – Spieth/Thomas (2), Rahm/Rose
Golf balls used by Ryder Cuppers
Callaway Chrome Soft X – Rahm, Hojgaard, Schauffele, Burns
TaylorMade TP5x – McIlroy, Fleetwood, MacIntyre, Fowler, Morikawa
Srixon Z-Star Diamond – Straka, Koepka
Srixon Z-Star XV – Lowry
Titleist Pro V1x – Fitzpatrick, Hatton, Aberg, Spieth, Clark, Cantlay, Thomas
Titleist Pro V1 – Hovland, Rose, Scheffler, Homa, Harman
