Justin Thomas will be a US Captain soon

Per DataGolf this afternoon:

Justin Thomas wins his match and moves to 2–1–1 on the week, 0.5 points above replacement. He’s now +5.5 PAR all-time at team events, extending his lead as best American Ryder/Pres Cupper (since the Ryder Cup expanded to include continental Europe).

JT has the stuff for this event. He’s the antithesis of Burns, typically playing above his level in three events. He’s our Ian poulter and he will definitely be a captain soon

Not really. He’s 6-11-4 all time.

Today was his first win in singles at the Presidents cup…

Koiven is on another level. That was fun to watch.

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9 of those 11 losses come from foursomes, a format

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How do we get better at “foursomes?”

In the UK, many clubs have one day a week where every group plays foursomes or you don’t play at all.

In the USA, that is not the culture.
Should there be some foursomes event on tour or college level?

We had a Pinehurst/Chapman event recently at our club for 9 holes, but usually it’s fourballs for most partner events.

At this point there should be agreement that something needs to be done. Maybe a couple of extra events or changes to tourney formats. It’s fun to watch.

As proven in the singles, this team had no business trailing so much after the team sessions. Same has been true in most RCs.

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Flaming hot take:
There is zero reason 4 guys with handicaps 20+ should all be playing a ball down. If courses/clubs would enforce a team best ball game on weekends, we'd never have 5 hour rounds. This would also make players better...

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Yeah, I'd say that's a hot take. I have 1 reason: Those 4 guys like to play golf and paid their money just like all the lower handicaps on the course. If they are keeping up with pace, have at it.

The foursomes issues is a recent issue for the US. As in, the last 5 years. They have been fine in home Ryder Cups, and back before the Euros figured things out, they were fine in all Ryder Cups.

I really enjoy watching foursomes. I think it is the purest form of team golf. I'd be fine with high schools and colleges promoting it more. However, I get why clubs don't typically do it. It's the same reason why I have never played it myself. I don't get to play as much as I want. The game costs enough already. I don't want to pay the same money and hit half the shots. Now, if I get to a point where my family life lets me play multiple times a week, that may change for me.

Also, this fits in with a lot of decisions by clubs. It seems kind of silly for a big club to make a huge change for 1 event in 10 years (US Open) rather than focusing on the member daily enjoyment. If a club wants to implement more team golf for the fun of the members, go for it. But, don't do it to try to make the US Ryder Cup team better at foursomes for an event that happens once every 2 years.

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I do think clubs adopting some sort of fourball game within their membership would be an overall net positive. There is a reason member/guests or member/member events are a lot of fun - team golf is more exciting than solo.

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I think plenty of places have fourball events. That's just individual golf with a little twist. It's foursomes that I think is up for discussion.

JT played the worst of the americans this week pert datagolf strokes gained.

It's not that people don't like him, it's that he continues to get Captain's picks he doesn't deserve and doesn't perform. Koivun carried him in fourball Saturday and he happened to get paired against the guy who played the worst in the field on Sunday. He probably should have gone 1-3 this week if he'd played with/against replacement level partners/competition.

The US would've been better off having Spaun or Gerard this week