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Friday, December 13, 2019

Round 3 Fourball Pairings

Both teams left Round 2 with something to hold onto. At one point Team USA was staring at the potential of finishing the day in a 1-9 deficit. Having finished down only 3.5-6.5, they certainly leave with some momentum.

But while the Internationals didn't gain the ground they had hoped, they still have that three-point lead... and the Americans have five fewer matches to make them up. They may feel a bit deflated, but that's still a win for them.

In Round 3 we're back to the Internationals' strong suit, fourballs.
  • Match 11: Marc Leishman/Haotong Li VS
    Justin Thomas/Rickie Fowler
  • Match 12: Sungjae Im/Abraham Ancer VS
    Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay
  • Match 13: Hideki Matsuyama/C.T. Pan VS
    Webb Simpson/Patrick Reed
  • Match 14: Byeong-Hun An/Adam Scott VS
    Matt Kuchar/Tony Finau
Everyone on both teams has now played.

I think this round is the big one for the Americans. This is their weakest format and they lost a lot of ground in the Round 1 fourballs. They HAVE to find some way to at least halve this session. If they lose another two or three points, they're going to be in deep trouble.

One last thing: I was a bit shocked, both that Tiger is sitting out this round and that he left the team of Reed/Simpson together. Tiger and JT are responsible for two of the team's 3.5 points, as well as being the only team to get a point in the earlier fourball session, so I thought he'd play fourballs again. But after checking their scores in more detail, the Reed/Simpson pairing did play fourballs much better than foursomes so he may think this is the best place to rest other players.

GC's coverage starts today at 3pm ET and runs until 2am ET. This could be a long one for Team USA.

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