“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein
There’s some question over whether Einstein actually said that, but the truth of the statement is valid regardless. And Team USA’s Ryder Cup team has officially entered the chat in this regard.
On Friday morning, captain Keegan Bradley sent out the foursome pairing of Collin Morikawa and Harris English. One analytics database ranked them 132nd out of 132 possible pairings among this Ryder Cup’s golfers, suggesting you couldn’t make a worse partnership for Bethpage Black if you wanted to.
They got crushed on Friday.
And on Saturday, they’re back together for another run at foursomes despite a big deficit for Team USA.
Noticeably absent: J.J. Spaun.
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Why isn’t J.J. Spaun playing?
There’s no great reason for why Spaun isn’t playing other than that he’s a Ryder Cup rookie and that this was a predetermined lineup.
It’s not actually clear whether the pairings were fully picked ahead of time, but there’s no other way to explain this.
Spaun played well Friday afternoon and may have had a chance to win if Scottie Scheffler hadn’t had one of his worst days of golf in a long time.
The talented Spaun entered the tournament as the No. 6 ranked golfer in the world. Not among Team USA, but among every golfer on the planet.
Leaving him out of two of the first three stages of the Ryder Cup feels like malpractice.
And while it might not be the only thing that costs Team USA, it isn’t helping one bit.
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