NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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Both the American and European rosters are set for the Ryder Cup. Now the real work begins for the captains trying to figure out the right partnerships in the right formats.
Two Americans pose a big challenge for captain Keegan Bradley because of a small thing – the golf ball. Because they are relative unicorns when it comes to the golf balls they play, it could limit their options by potentially removing the alternate-shot foursomes from the equation.
That might not be the biggest deal for Ben Griffin, a Ryder Cup rookie who isn’t likely to play in five sessions anyway. But when it comes to two-time U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, that’s another story.
Griffin is the first player on the PGA Tour in more than two decades to use a Maxfli golf ball. He won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with partner Andrew Novak, picking up Maxfli’s first win on tour since 2003. Novak agreed to use Griffin’s Maxfli Tour X during the alternate-shot rounds after testing it during the week of the Masters playing “worst ball” in a practice round and shooting 3-under.
It’s unlikely that one of the veterans on Team USA will be as agreeable as Novak, so Griffin might play exclusively in the four-ball format. That’s not uncommon for a Ryder Cup rookie.
DeChambeau, however, will be playing in his third Ryder Cup and fourth international team match for Team USA. And the entertaining crowd favorite will be expected to be a big part of the team with a power game well-suited for the brawny Bethpage Black course. Fans want to see him hitting bombs and not shaking pom-poms as a benched cheerleader for the home team in the opening foursomes.
But DeChambeau has long proved difficult to pair up. He didn’t even send himself out in either foursomes match during the LIV Golf Team Championship, sticking exclusively to singles in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
DeChambeau has never played more than three matches, including the mandatory singles, in both his prior Ryder Cup appearances. In 2018 in France, he was paired in foursomes play with Phil Mickelson on Friday and Tiger Woods on Saturday. He didn’t make it past the 14th hole in either match, losing both, 5 and 4.
In 2021 at Whistling Straits, he only played in the four-ball sessions with a young rookie named Scottie Scheffler, and they collected 1½ points with a tie against Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton and 3-and-1 win over Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland. In the 2019 Presidents Cup in Australia (his only other international team appearance) he played only one team session and lost a four-ball match with Tony Finau.
Here’s where the ball comes in. DeChambeau has been searching all year for a golf ball that suits him, requiring one that spins less and flies straighter. “I’m working with somebody that’s going to get me a ball that works better for my speeds,” Dechambeau said during the Open Championship. “Hopefully there’s some more improvements to be made there. That’s something I hope to complete in the next year.
“I need help out here. I hit it way too high. I’ve tried to lower my flight, but I compress down on it really hard and I spin it like crazy, and then on my wedges, I don’t spin it. It launches high with no spin. I’m working on a few things that’ll help get that launch down while controlling the spin so it’s more predictable out of my wedge shots.
“I’m working with somebody that I’ve already seen improvements on. It’s just not ready to be released, unfortunately. They can’t make enough as quickly as they’d like. But it’s coming; it’ll be here, worst case scenario, September, but an iteration of it in the next couple weeks.”
DeChambeau deployed his Titleist Pro V1x Double Dot – a custom performance option (CPO) – at the LIV Golf Chicago event. He said the Double Dot ball flies about 20-30 feet lower with each club than his previous golf ball and with less spin.
As fate would have it, someone on the U.S. team also made the move to the prototype Titleist Pro V1x. Cameron Young put it in play and won the Wyndham Championship after four long years of trying to break through with a PGA Tour victory. He’s continued his best golf of the year since, playing his way into being one of Bradley’s captain’s picks.
Young – a New York native who grew up playing at nearby Sleepy Hollow – could be the partner DeChambeau has been searching for and they would certainly rile up the Bethpage crowds.
Smylie Kaufman suggested just that matchup during his recent podcast: “I think confusing Bryson with a different golf ball is something that I think would be interesting. … So for Bryson, you would need to pair him up with someone who uses a golf ball that he would be able to trust. I think Cam Young and him play a similar golf ball. That is where I would like to start with Bryson, just because of his equipment.
“That could be a team. Just having Cam’s mellowness but also the New York crowd that he could get hype off of, but I think that could potentially be a good team. They both hit it long, I mean, they could be something at Bethpage.”
Scott Michaux