Thomas Bjorn explains Friday morning fourball choices

Thomas Bjorn opted to play four of his five rookies in the Friday morning fourballs, resting Ryder Cup stalwarts Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia, along with 2018 Le Golf National champion Alex Noren.

Thomas Bjorn decided not to play three of his four wildcard picks during the first session on Friday, opting instead to put out a rookie in each group alongside a more experienced Ryder Cup player. 

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Bjorn split up the well-known successful partnership of Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson for the opening match, instead putting out the newly crowned FedEx Cup champion with World No.8 and Ryder Cup rookie Jon Rahm. They’ll be heading out in the top match against Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau. 

Rory McIlroy will once again play the role of the more experienced player as he teams up with Thorbjorn Olesen in match two against World No.1 Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler, while successful EurAsia Cup duo Tyrrell Hatton and Paul Casey will follow in the third match against new pairing Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. 

The last match is likely to receive a lot of attention. Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth have been split up, with the Masters Champion partnering Tiger Woods, who returns to the Ryder Cup having just claimed the Tour Championship. They’ll be up against the duo of Molinari and Fleetwood, who both have had success at Le Golf National and have the upper hand in this match – at least in terms of World Ranking points. 

When asked why he decided to put out four of his rookies so early on, he said part of the reason was that the players were desperate to get out there, and he also wanted them to play early.

“Well, I think I ran into one of these problems around that everyone says is a positive problem; that everyone is playing well and everyone is feeling good,” Bjorn said.

“I’ve looked at these guys and I think there’s obviously the obvious guys out there in the sense that people that you would all expect to be there, and then there’s a new guy in every group. They have been just itching to go, especially Thorbjørn and Jon and Tyrrell, they are just really desperate to get out on that golf course. I wanted to get them out there.

“Tommy, Tommy is a different guy in the way that he’s won around here, and he’s been real quality for the last couple of years. He’s very calm and relaxed. They are not going to give a lot away with emotion, those two. But they are great together and they feel really comfortable and good.

“This is what we go with tomorrow morning, and it’s a marathon. It really is. I just believe very much in this team. I believe in them as a group. I believe in them as individuals, and I just really felt like this was what I saw. This is what we saw in the group of six of us, and when we sat down yesterday and today and went through it, you know, it very much came to us like this. We feel it gives us a lot of options, as well, going forward, but delighted with the way that it turned out this evening.

“When you look at this group of guys that’s come into this team, you know, they are really hard competitors, and I believe in them so much. And I wanted to give them that responsibility of standing up and go out there and enjoy it.”

The large feeling is that Bjorn is hoping to play all 12 players during the opening day of the Ryder Cup, although he was quick to conceed that may change depending on how the morning session plays out. 

” It’s one of those things that your dream is probably to play everyone, but we’ll have to wait and see. There’s so many things that can happen in the space of an hour, an hour and a half in a Ryder Cup. I’ve not locked that down at all, but we’ll wait and see. It’s certainly a strong group of guys that are sitting on waiting to get out to play. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Perhaps the most unexpected pairing Bjorn opted for was Olesen and McIlroy, given that Rahm and McIlroy had been hotly tipped to play together. It seems an odd pairing, but Bjorn explained they are playing together because they wanted to. 

“Well, they both wanted to play with each other,” Bjorn said. “That’s a good start.

“Thorbjørn is a player — they get on really well, and they spend a lot of time together. The thing about Thorbjørn is, that a lot of people, you would think, oh, is that a big thing for him. He’ll go out in that match and he’s really, really — he’ll take it on and really enjoy it.

“And as a pairing, that’s a great start. If you want to play with each other and you look forward to getting out on that golf course together — but you know, then you are off to a good start. There’s no guarantees that any golfer of these 24 is going to go out and play great tomorrow, but you’ve got to have all the framework to give them an option to go and play great.”

The one thing Europe are guaranteed to have to contend against is a much stronger U.S side, at least on paper, but Bjorn was adadment that none of the matches have a predictable outcome.

“I think you always got to look at any session and say, if you’re not losing the sessions, you know, it’s not too bad, but that also depends on where you are,” he said. “I think, you know, you’d like to be ahead after any session, but you know, when I look at these matches, you know, they are just going to — they could be as tight as anything, all four of them, and it’s impossible for me to predict what’s going to happen.

“But I’m very focused on my side of what I put out, and not so much focused on what they are up against in the sense that our eight players are going out tomorrow morning and they are going out to play as good as they can, and we’ll see what the results are. Golf is a funny game, but this is what I trust and believe in for tomorrow morning.

Bjorn also explained what he will say to his players before they head out tomorrow.

“This is an opportunity,” Bjorn said. “This is an opportunity to stand up and follow in the footsteps of all the great players of this continent, and that’s the opportunity they have.

“Some of them have a long-standing Ryder Cup career and history with this event, and some of them are just setting out on a new chapter in their lives. But for all of them, it’s an opportunity to add to what their golf career is about.

“I’ve always said one thing about the game of golf: Players, they stand up and they are counted for what they do in the greatest events in the world. But legends are made in this event. That is where the public comes around them and can do so much for their careers. It’s an opportunity to go out there and be the best that you can be on a grand stage.”