Instant Reaction: 2025 Ryder Cup Friday Morning Foursomes Pairings

On Thursday afternoon 2025 Ryder Cup captains Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald announced their picks for Friday morning's opening foursomes session at Bethpage Black. Joseph LaMagna and Kevin Van Valkenburg are on the grounds this week and had some instant reactions to the pairings and matches.

Match 1 – 7:10 a.m. ET

Bryson DeChambeau/Justin Thomas (USA) vs. Jon Rahm/Tyrrell Hatton (Europe)

Joseph LaMagna: If your goal is to fire up the home American crowd as much as possible, it’s hard to fathom a more electric pairing than Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas. If your goal, however, is to win as many points as possible, I am skeptical that JT and his wild driving will hold up his end of the bargain! This match is a stone-cold lock to be full of fireworks, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Legion XIII teammates take the opening point.

Kevin Van Valkenburg: This pairing feels like a tag-team match from the WWE Attitude Era. Bryson and Justin are going to whip the crowd into a frenzy. The crowd is going to do anything they can to agitate Europe’s two hotheads. It feels like there should be pyrotechnics on the first tee as Bryson tries to drive the first green through the smoke. But unless Thomas putts well, I feel like the Euros have an advantage here. Clearly Keegan wants to send out his Big Driver Energy pairing, but if they get cooked by a more experienced duo in Rahm and Hatton, it feels like an early statement from the road team.

Match 2 – 7:26 a.m. ET

Scottie Scheffler/Russell Henley (USA) vs. Ludvig Aberg/Matt Fitzpatrick (Europe)

KVV: I’m a little surprised Luke Donald split up Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland, who literally made Scottie cry in Italy, and instead put Fitzy out with Ludvig. I guess you have to play Fitzpatrick somewhere and see what he can give you? The Americans have to win a full point from this match, or I have zero confidence they’ve come to play this week.

Joseph: Scheffler/Henley is my single favorite foursomes pairings of any combination on either side. I cannot wait to see this team play (hopefully) two foursomes matches together. They’ll face stiff competition, though. Both Aberg and Fitzpatrick enter in solid form and play the same golf ball, making them a natural fit. While these may not be the four biggest names in the field, this match-up is a golf sicko’s dream.

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Match 3 – 7:42 a.m. ET

Collin Morikawa/Harris English (USA) vs. Rory McIlroy/Tommy Fleetwood (Europe)

Joseph: Yeah, I’ll take McIlroy/Fleetwood in this one.

KVV: A collection of your favorite ball-strikers’ favorite ball-strikers. A halve here would not carry the same weight for both sides; it would feel like a win for the U.S. and a loss for the Euros. Maybe the Americans can hang around if English’s putter gets hot, but every time Rory has a driver in his hand on the tee, Europe is going to have (just guessing here) between a 30-50 yard advantage into a hole. At least one, and maybe both, of these Americans are likely to be sitting in the afternoon, so they’d better at least make Rory and Tommy work for it.

Match 4 – 7:58 a.m. ET

Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay (USA) vs. Robert MacIntyre/Viktor Hovland (Europe)

KVV: I love following the final match of a session because it feels like it carries the weight of two points, if not more. It can swing the entire morning, or break it for a team that’s floundering. I’m curious how Bobby Mac is going to handle the crowds, because on Friday he is going to hear stuff he has never heard in his life, and he’s never been great about tuning out the noise. This feels like a match the Americans have to win, and Hovland sounds like he found a feeling on the range that’s going to make him dangerous. A decent version of Xander better show up or I could see the Euros walking away with an upset here.

Joseph: We’re well-acquainted with the Schauffele-Cantlay pairing, a duo of friends who’ve gone 2-2-0 in their two Ryder Cup appearances. Consider me all the way in on the new team of MacIntyre and Hovland, two extremely solid players who play the same golf ball and have played together in all three practice rounds between Tuesday and Thursday. One thing to watch: Hovland has struggled with driver this year much more than in any other year of his career. If he drives the golf ball well, I like the Euros’ chances.