With a few days to reflect on what transpired at Royal Montreal — another lopsided victory for the United States — here are five things on my mind regarding the . As Mike Weir went from group to group at Royal Montreal in his captain’s cart, he was often joined in the passenger seat by a member of his analytics team. Without question, Weir relied on data when making his pairings at this Presidents Cup — until he didn’t.
Weir veered from that strategy for Saturday morning’s four-ball session after seeing his Friday groups throttle the American side and ratchet up what had been a rather dull atmosphere on Thursday when the . In particular, Weir saw how well played on Friday — and how jacked up they got the crowds — and chose to send them back out Saturday morning. This was not his original plan.
Ditto for the duos of Taylor Pendrith and Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im. Those three teams all lost their matches, which put Weir in a pickle. He had to decide whether it was wiser to give those guys rest or go with the data that had suggested they’d be such good foursomes pairings in the first place.
He kept them in for Saturday afternoon’s session, along with the team of Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim, his only victorious pairing Saturday morning. That meant those eight players double-dipped on Saturday and Weir’s other four men sat all day. By the end of Saturday, Weir had seen a .
Schauffele sets the tone in the Sunday singles session as the U.S. wraps.
