MEDINAH, Ill. — For all that is made about how the Ryder Cup is more compelling than the Presidents Cup for myriad reasons, the junior of the international team competitions outdoes its elder in one compelling department: the session pairings.
In the Ryder Cup, captains and their assistants have to decide on their lineups and deliver them in a sealed envelope. That requires strategic guesswork in some cases, with a bit of educated anticipation thrown in.
Similar to your fantasy team draft, the Presidents Cup features a live game of cat-and-mouse, with decisions sometimes made on the fly depending on how the draw is shaping up.
“You can kind of have a little bit of control with half of this pairings thing,” Internationals captain Geoff Ogilvy said on Saturday night at Medinah, “but you can lose control pretty quick as the whole thing … it’s like a snake draft. That’s interesting. We had a sort of general idea, but we just let it unfold as it goes.”
We have no way of knowing if either team celebrated with fist pumps behind closed doors after the Sunday singles matches for this Presidents Cup were decided, but the results were interesting enough to wonder who thinks they came out on top.
Ogilvy said “we had some ideas” about a lineup as he anticipated that U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker would front-load his lineup because the Americans are trailing 10½-7½, and the American skipper seemingly did that with players who have produced better statistics this week, if not always good results.
But Ogilvy didn’t necessarily counterpunch with his heavyweights in the early going. To wit: He put Nico Echavarria, who has only played once (and lost), against World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler in Match No. 4. And for Match 6, Ogilvy chose Christiaan Bezuidenhout, another one-match guy (who won), against arguably America’s second-best player for the week, Chris Gotterup.
At the bottom is where the Internationals are stacked, with their last four players combining for a 9-4-1 record this week. The U.S. countered with players who are 2-6-1.
So, it is even more incumbent for the U.S. to get red on the board early or it could be a very long day.
A look at the singles matchups:
Cameron Young vs. Ryo Hisatsune
Young, even after losing his first two matches, has been the strongest American player, with he and Gotterup securing two points together on Saturday. His strokes gained total of 9.40 total is by far the best on his squad. Hisatsune is 1-1 and was carried a lot by Hideki Matsuyama in their win.
Advantage: Young
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• • •
Wyndham Clark vs. Tom Kim
Clark has had a bizarre week. He has the second-best U.S. overall SG at 5.41 and most SG in putting, but his record is 1-3. Kim has seemingly toned down his antics a bit, and that might be because it seems like his constant partner Si Woo Kim has considerably outplayed him in them going 3-1.
Advantage: Clark
• • •
Justin Thomas vs. Corey Conners 
Kevin C. Cox
Thomas gets deserved respect for his match-play prowess, but he’s 1-1-1 and has seemingly played progressively worse, with his negative SG reaching a team-worst 5.01. Corey Conners has been just OK in going 2-2, and there is this strange stat for JT: He’s 3-0 in singles in the Ryder Cup and 0-3 in the Presidents Cup. Will his love for Medinah turn that around?
Advantage: Thomas
• • •
Scottie Scheffler vs. Nico Echavarria
Who doesn’t love a good underdog story? This one qualifies, with No. 1 Scheffler taking on the Colombian who is World No. 61. But this is match play, and Echavarria has nothing to lose after playing only once and badly (minus-5.37 SG) in a Day 1 defeat. And remember, Scheffler has not been a singles beast, with a combined record of 2-2-1 in the Cups.
Advantage: Scheffler
• • •
Sam Burns vs. Sungjae Im
Two players who will be venturing out for a fifth time this week. Who has more stamina? Neither played particularly well in their afternoon foursomes matches, each part of a losing team. But throughout the week, Burns has been excellent in some clutch spots. And we know he can putt.
Advantage: Burns
• • •
Chris Gotterup vs. vs. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 
Sarah Stier
Gotterup was a monster on Saturday in a pair of wins with Cam Young, and now has a feel for the team match play environment. Bezuidenhout hasn’t hit a ball since Friday, and that was in a foursomes win with Adam Scott. So this will be his first round playing his own ball. Good luck.
Advantage: Gotterup
• • •
Collin Morikawa vs. Hideki Matsuyama
One of only two matches featuring major champions and a great showdown between strong ballstrikers, which means this will come down to who is better with the putter. Matsuyama has looked particularly sharp in winning twice in three matches.
Advantage: Matsuyama
• • •
Patrick Cantlay vs. Adam Scott
Cantlay finally got a win in his traditional foursomes pairing with Schauffele, so that might get him in the right frame of mind to take on the former Masters champion and run his unbeaten singles record to 4-0. Scott, meanwhile, is a meager 5-6-0 in singles. With a chance to finally win once in his 12 appearances, the Australian should be motivated in what could be his final go as a player.
Advantage: Cantlay
• • •
Jackson Koivun vs. Si Woo Kim 
Jared C. Tilton
This is a fun one, simply because it matches a four-time Presidents Cupper with the stoic Cup rookie in Koivun. The American seemed like a nervous wreck in a win with Justin Thomas on Thursday, but he settled down to outplay JT, making four birdies, on Saturday in their fourball tie. Si Woo (3-1-1) has probably been his team’s second-best player behind Sungjae Im, and he’s got the experience on this stage, with a singles record of 1-2.
Advantage: Kim
• • •
Jacob Bridgeman vs. Min Woo Lee
We have to think that Bridgeman and Henley are motivated to show their own stuff after being paired twice in foursomes losses. Statistically, Bridgeman played far better than his partner, so he may not be too far off. And as the No 1-ranked putter on tour, he goes up against Lee, who has been the worst putter for his side. Lee tied Wyndham Clark two years ago in singles.
Advantage: Lee
• • •
Russell Henley vs. Nick Taylor
As a captain’s pick in his first Cup, Taylor has mostly been a bright spot with a 2-1 record—specifically because of his putting. He’s actually been bad from tee to green, losing nearly 6 strokes. Henley has been poor in that category, too, and has not display much in his strong suit—putting.
Advantage: Toss up
• • •
Xander Schauffele vs. Ryan Fox
In a normally front-loaded lineup, Schauffele would figure to be near the top, but he’s struggled this week in being 1-2. Now, the thinking could also be that he’ll muster his majors game in the moment as the anchor. He’s got a formidable foe in Fox, who is 2-1 and brings spark to the Internationals with his presence alone. This could be a doozy of a match if the Cup goes down to the wire.
Advantage: Fox
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
