GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy – After falling behind 4-0 in the morning foursome session, U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson would have been understandable to change his game plan before the afternoon foursome to adapt. But American adjustments did not appear to be driven solely by competitive imperatives.
“We just fight things internally. There’s a bit of passing around, caddies, players. It is what it is,” Johnson said. “But it’s nothing more than that. Guys still fight and play. I mean, it’s not something that has weighed on us in any way because of the depth that we have and the amount of options that we think we have.”
Johnson went on to explain that his team was dealing with some “overload” and that the “energy was probably a little low,” but declined to say exactly who was struggling with the illness and how it affected their game plan could have had an impact.
After defeating Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, the most productive American duo of recent years, in the morning, he played them in the best-ball session. Johnson also chose Brooks Koepka to play with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who had played with Sam Burns in the morning.
Patrick Cantlay had to sit out the afternoon, which was a bit of a surprise given his record in combination with Xander Schauffele, who played in four-ball with Collin Morikawa. Rickie Fowler and Brian Harman also sat out the later games after playing in the morning.
Fowler, Burns, Morikawa and Wyndham Clark will sit out Saturday’s foursome, leading to speculation that the U.S. group has been affected by the team’s health issues.
“The bottom line is that there were some unforeseen things that we had to work around, which is really unfortunate from a health perspective,” Johnson said. “That’s not an excuse because we have depth, but I’m just saying, I’m thankful we have a team doctor.”