Keegan Bradley doesn’t want a mulligan.
Even after Bradley watched the most questionable of his six selections, Collin Morikawa, immediately backfire, the first-time U.S. captain is running back two of his losing foursomes pairs Saturday morning, including Morikawa and Harris English, who will face Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood in a rematch (7:26 a.m.) of Friday morning’s blowout.
Morikawa, who has struggled in recent months, and English were on the wrong end of a 5 & 4 embarrassment, winning just one hole — which included the pair’s only birdie — in 14 holes.
“We have a plan of what we’re going to do,” Bradley said following his team’s lopsided 3-1 defeat in foursomes. “We’re really comfortable with those two players. [I’m] excited who they are playing … We’re sticking to our plan. We’re not going to panic. We’re not going to panic and make those sort of mistakes. We’re going to stick to what we know. We have a lot of confidence in them.
“They were eager to get back out on the course, and that’s why we did that.”
Bradley appeared to have acknowledged his error, benching Morikawa and English in Friday’s afternoon four-ball session — along with Russell Henley, who struggled putting in his foursomes loss with Scottie Scheffler — and tapped Ryder Cup rookies Cam Young, Ben Griffin and J.J. Spaun.
Young, a native New Yorker, put on the Americans’ best showing of the day, recording five birdies in a blowout win. Griffin sank four birdies. Spaun had three.
Bradley is counting on Bryson DeChambeau to rev up the Long Island crowd in Saturday’s opening foursomes match (7:10 a.m.), pairing the long hitter with Young against Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Aberg.
Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, the only Americans to win in foursomes, will tee off in the third match (7:42 a.m.) against Jon Rahm — who is 7-0-2 when playing with a partner since the 2018 Ryder Cup — and Tyrrell Hatton.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will rejoin Henley in the final match of the morning (7:58 a.m.), facing Viktor Hovland and Robert MacIntyre.
Cantlay did his part again. But he’ll regret that he couldn’t do more.
Cantlay, who had a 5-2-1 record in the past two Ryder Cups, kept American optimism alive by sinking the winning putt on the 18th hole of the morning session’s final match, clinching a full point, against MacIntyre and Hovland.
“I learned that Patrick Cantlay is a tough dude,” Bradley said. “I watched him out there hit a lot of great shots, make a lot of incredible putts. I’m proud of the way the guys fought It is not easy when you are down in matches in a Ryder Cup and trying to fight back.”
In the afternoon four-ball session — paired with Sam Burns against McIlroy and Shane Lowry — Cantlay delivered three birdies early on the back nine to bring his group even after facing a two-hole deficit.
But with a chance to deliver a third straight birdie and put the Americans in front on the 14th hole (par 3), Cantlay’s nerves kicked in, forcing him to twice step away from a 3-foot putt before missing it. Cantlay also had a chance to win the 15th hole, but pushed his 15-foot putt to the right. On the 16th, Cantlay birdied again, but McIlroy responded with one to tie the hole.