2014 Ryder Cup: Tee times, pairings, match schedule for Saturday at Gleneagles

The USA enters Saturday at the Ryder Cup down two points following an ugly winless Friday afternoon session. Europe ripped complete control back from the American side with a 3.5 point session and prompted critiques of Tom Watson’s lineup, most notably keeping Patrick Reed/Jordan Spieth on the bench. Watson has changed things up for the first two matches of Saturday four-ball, trying to get some momentum back and recover from the demoralizing Friday afternoon.

Here’s a look at the pairings for Saturday’s four-ball session (four-ball is the format where each player plays his own ball tee to green, and the best of the two matches up against the best of the opponent’s two).

This is not a match the USA should expect to win, and picking off a half point should be considered a success and gravy for anything else that would come the rest of the day. The Rose/Stenson combo has been Europe’s most formidable pair, yielding nothing with darts into almost every flagstick and relatively few sloppy putts.

Bubba’s underwhelming play on Friday was largely masked by the awful play of his partner, Webb Simpson. Kuchar played pretty well with partner Jim Furyk but still didn’t have enough to edge the streaky Euro pair of Donaldson/Westwood. This was not a natural USA pairing at the start of the week, but the beating of Friday’s afternoon session forced captain Watson to change things on the fly. He’ll try to catch some momentum with these two against Rose, Europe’s unstoppable force at the moment.

Westwood was the last man on the European team, coming off one of his worst seasons in recent memory. But he sure flipped it into Ryder Cup mode quickly on Friday, and the rode the world-class work of his rookie partner. At the start of Friday, this was one of the European teams the USA had to like their chances against, but they should be the favorites over Furyk/Mahan.

Furyk didn’t necessarily play poorly on Friday, but he still stacked another loss on top of his ugly Ryder Cup record. That record has been disastrous in this four-ball format, 1-8-1. Again, this would be a nice halve or point to pick up out ahead of the USA’s top two pairings behind them.

The USA side should be favored based on what we saw Friday. Rookies Spieth and Reed were Watson’s best pair in the morning four-ball, and then the captain made the puzzling decision to sit them down for the afternoon. He was panned for that move, and both players were “very upset” according to the captain himself. It was a mess. You would have to assume they’re going to be the most fired up twosome on the American side, trying to build off their dominant opening match win and pissed off about the benching in the second session.

Kaymer and Bjorn were the only European pair not favored in Friday four-ball, but they still led their match over Walker/Fowler until the very last hole. That’s when he USA finally pulled even to steal a half-point. They sat out in the afternoon so some of the other Euros could get out on the course, but it wasn’t because of shaky play. If they can shut up the USA rookie duo, it would likely mean the Euros are on their way to another session victory.

The best match on paper, a clash between the USA’s most consistent players and pairing and what we thought were Europe’s top two Ryder Cup guns coming into the event. Walker has been the American MVP so far, carrying Rickie in four-ball on Friday with a couple chip-ins and that clutch putt on the 18th to steal the halve from Kaymer/Bjorn. They were closing in on a full point in the afternoon and outplaying the superstar pair of Rory/Sergio until those two turned it on with some miraculous shots to go birdie-birdie and steal their own half point. Fowler was the top overall American player coming into the event, but he has yet to win a match in his short Ryder Cup history, halving four of five.

McIlroy and Poulter on their way to that thrilling win that ignited the Medinah comeback, via Andy Lyons.

McIlroy and Poulter were, of course, the duo that started the European comeback two years ago at Medinah. They hadn’t been paired together until that Saturday afternoon match, but winning the final point of two-man games gave Europe hope that a four-point comeback was possible in Sunday singles. Poulter was largely the hero of that match, rolling in five straight birdies to close it out. But the Englishman has had a poor season and looked bad on Friday, denting his Euro Ryder Cup hero status. Rory wasn’t exactly sharp either, but bombed in that putt on the 17th green to deflate Walker/Fowler and enable that comeback for the halve. Maybe the two will get it rolling now that they’re paired up again. They should be the favorites based on past work but this looks like a beautiful closing match for the morning session.

The Euros are the favorites this week, and they’re lineup is favored in this session. It’s critical for the USA to stem the Euro run from Friday afternoon, but the most likely scenario is another European win, perhaps a 2.5 to 1.5 point session. Here’s the full match board for day 2 at Gleneagles -- the afternoon pairings and lineup should be announced around 7 a.m. ET: