The U.S. Team's Foursomes Flaw: When Fear Steals the Birdies

I believed in the so-called 'team depth' for years. A U.S. team featuring names like Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, or Collin Morikawa should have been a destroyer with no weaknesses. But then the 2026 Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal happened, and the way the U.S. team secured a 17-13 victory with a singles comeback was a terrifying warning rather than a moment of pure joy. That win concealed a lethal crack: the foursomes format, also known as alternate shot.

On the Subpar podcast by GOLF.com, Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz dissected a statistic that made me stop and rewind the recording. The U.S. team at this year's Presidents Cup won only 2 foursomes matches and lost 7. This is not a one-off accident. At the 2026 Ryder Cup in Rome, they lost this format 2-6-0. And in a latest stat mentioned by Stoltz with a bewildered look, since Rome, the U.S. team has made fewer bogeys than its opponents but has made half as many birdies.

That is a paradox that can only be explained by an overly conservative playing strategy. When you possess the best golfers on the planet, playing 'to let the opponent beat themselves' is a mental gamble. You are trying to minimize risk, but you are playing in a format where risk is the currency. Foursomes is not a contest to see who makes fewer mistakes. It is a contest to see who creates more scoring opportunities. You cannot win match play by waiting for your opponent to collapse. You have to finish them off.

Both Knost and Stoltz offered different hypotheses. Knost believed it was a mental issue, that the American golfers 'panic' when they step into the alternate shot format. Stoltz leaned towards a strategy issue, that the captain and the golfers are playing too conservatively. But I believe these two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive. They are causally linked. When you play safe, you do not make birdies. When you do not make birdies, you feel pressure to be perfect. And when you feel pressure to be perfect in a format where every shot is shared, fear takes over your mind.

Data analysis reveals this is a systemic issue, not a one-off stroke of bad luck.

Look at the 2-7 foursomes record this year. It is not isolated. It is a link in a chain of failures stretching back through several recent Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups. What is more frightening is that it is happening in a format that accounts for two of the four sessions (Session 1 and Session 3). Once you lose foursomes, you do not just lose points. You are placing all the pressure on the four-ball and singles formats. And in an away Ryder Cup, where the crowd is no longer on your side, having to chase from behind in a format where you are already weak is a tactical nightmare.

There is a detail I noticed in the analysis. Scottie Scheffler was mentioned by Knost as an example of team depth. 'These are the best in the world,' Knost said. But Scheffler's very presence highlights the problem: if you have the world's number one golfer and still lose foursomes, the problem lies in the system, not the personnel. You cannot blame a lack of talent when you possess the best.

This leads me to a counter-intuitive angle. Perhaps the very greatness of the American golfers is part of the problem. In the singles format, they shine brightly. Scheffler, Schauffele, or Morikawa are all exceptional individuals, people accustomed to controlling their own destiny on the course. But foursomes demands a completely different skill: humility. You have to accept that your partner might hit an imperfect shot, and you have to carry it. You have to know when to attack and when to defend, not because you want to, but because it is what is best for the team.

I have seen this in my own career. In 2026, at 16, I was obsessed with how Didier Deschamps' France won the World Cup with a pragmatic counter-attacking strategy. I wrote a blog post praising that pragmatism. But the bigger lesson I realized later was: pragmatism only works when it is executed with absolute confidence. France did not play safe because they were afraid to lose. They played safe because they knew exactly when to unleash. The current U.S. team is playing safe because they are afraid of making mistakes. And that is a very big difference.

Stoltz was right when he said: 'Whatever we're doing, we should change it.' But what to change is the difficult question. Change the pairings? That is a half-measure if the playing strategy remains the same. Change the strategy? That is mandatory, but it requires a shift in mindset for the entire team. The problem is not who is paired with whom. The problem is that when two people walk onto the course with one ball, they do not know how to attack together.

I remember the collapse at the 350-meter mark at the 2026 National Phu Dong Sports Festival. I was leading in the semifinals, but then I tried a different, unusual start. I was not afraid of failure. I was afraid of monotony. I was afraid of having to follow a cookie-cutter training plan. But in elite sports, sometimes you have to accept the plan. You have to know when to break it. And the U.S. team seems stuck in an old plan: 'Play it safe, let the opponent beat themselves.'

But in match play, your opponent does not beat themselves. You have to beat them. You have to sow fear in their minds with consecutive birdies. You have to make them feel that any mistake will be punished immediately.

The most concerning thing is that the 17-13 victory at this year's Presidents Cup might be masking a problem that will explode at the 2027 Ryder Cup.

The European team is not the International team. They have comparable depth, if not superior in team-format experience. And they will be playing at home, where the crowd will cheer after every missed American shot. Once the U.S. team loses foursomes at an away Ryder Cup, the pressure on four-ball and singles will multiply. They will have to win four-ball to catch up, and then a tense Sunday with 12 singles matches. That is a path full of thorns.

There is an interesting detail in the Subpar analysis that I consider the crux: 'This is 12 on 12. This is a battle.' Knost said that. And in a battle, you cannot win by defending. You have to attack. You have to accept risk. You have to trust your partner enough to know that, even if he makes a mistake, you can still salvage the situation with a bold next shot.

The current U.S. team seems to lack that trust. They are playing as if they are trying not to lose, instead of trying to win. And in elite sports, that is a difference that can determine the fate of an entire generation of golfers.

The 2027 Ryder Cup will be held at Adare Manor, Ireland. It will be an away Ryder Cup. And if the U.S. team does not solve its foursomes problem soon, they may look back on the 17-13 victory at the 2026 Presidents Cup as a missed opportunity. An opportunity to change. An opportunity to admit that, sometimes, what you need is not a new pairing, but a new mindset.

Will the U.S. team's coaching staff dare to admit that the recent victory was a warning, or will they continue to lull themselves in momentary glory?