Pairings: why blind?
So why exactly are the pairings blind in Ryder’s Cup, President’s Cup, and Solheim Cup? The blind system may yield some mismatches, or less than stellar pairings for TV. For example, Tiger and Furyk played against Appleby and Hensby. Wouldn’t it have been more exciting for TV if they had to play Vijay Singh and Tim Clark.
I’d prefer to have the following system: (1) Captain A announces first pairing, and then Captain B picks his team to match, (2) Captain B then picks his second pairing, followed by Captain A picking his team to match, etc. This would avoid the “surprise” Captain Curtis Strange said he had when the Euros “frontloaded” their stalwarts in the singles matches. I’m not sure that would be better, but I’d rather see matches that are more fun to watch.
UPDATE: I just saw Captain Nicklaus picking the morning matches. The President’s Cup does follow my preferred method I’ve outlined above. Jack picked one, then Gary. Sorry, I assumed when Jack put Tiger and Furyk last against Hensby/Appleby, it was a blind pairing. But I think he did that because both Tiger and Furyk are injured and he didn’t know how well they’d play. It’s interesting to see because Jack has put as his No. 1 team: Leonard/Verplank against the robots, Goosen/Scott. No. 2 US team is DiMarco/Mickelson against Campbell/Cabrera. No. 3 Tiger and Furyk now against Singh/Appleby. Full board here.
Tweet