The Ryder Cup has begun, and the Day 1 Foursomes are hinting at something which the US fans might not be ready to accept anytime soon. By the looks of the score, Team Europe is crushing Team USA. It has already gained a lead of 3-0 and might be able to close the session with a 4-0 or 3-1. Now, this is not something the golf world was expecting from the US, considering the added advantage of playing on the home turf. But the result has changed the direction of the winds, and Keegan Bradley has now found himself in the middle of this storm.

It’s obvious why fans would point fingers at Bradley. It was he who set these pairings up. For the Day 1 foursomes, the pair of Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas went against Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley were put up against Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick, Collin Morikawa and Harris English faced Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood, and the friendly duo of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay were set up against Robert McIntyre and Viktor Hovland.

But, after the final scoring, whatever strategy Keegan Bradley might have thought of at the time of setting these pairs up has ultimately come crashing down. Apart from Schauffele and Cantlay’s pair, all the other pairs lost their round to their European rivals.

DeChamebau and Thomas lost 4 & 3 to Rahm and Hatton, Scheffler and Henley lost 5 & 3 to Aberg and Fitzpatrick, and Morikawa and English lost 5 & 4 to Rory McIlory and Fleetwood. This comes as a shock to many, with Scheffler’s loss despite being world number 1 and DeChambeau’s fall, who, way before the event’s start, had shown a bunch of enthusiasm.

Given the poor performance of these players, Bradley now finds himself in the middle of critical eyes. His captaincy has been under the radar for a while, considering he’s the youngest after Arnold Palmer. Moreover, for a very long time, he tossed around the idea of being a part of the playing squad, which raised questions about his leadership. Although he ended up making the “ultimate sacrifice,” it might have left its mark. In fact, his decision to start the day with foursomes also received its fair share of mixed reactions. On top of that, the American Team is anyway facing a lot of scrutiny for demanding a stipend for the Ryder Cup, when their European rivals are basically playing for free.

And it’s not like Keegan Bradley has not been trying to make the team solid. In the last couple of weeks, many of his actions have received a lot of appreciation. But now, after the Day 1 score, fans have pointed their fingers at him.

Fans blast on Keegan Bradley

The reactions are outpouring, not sparing Keegan Bradley at all. Social media platforms like X are seeing a surge of reactions, with many saying “told you so,” and others expressing their shock at the USA’s underwhelming performance. Let us take a look at some of them.

One commenter said, “@Keegan_Bradley Need a serious change in the pairings in foursomes. You put some terrible teams out this morning. Henley, Morikawa, and Thomas have zero business in this format.” The frustration makes sense if one watches the rounds. Henley missed multiple short putts, Morikawa/English collapsed quickly, and Justin Thomas misfired on key iron shots. As per data, Henley/Scheffler was a top-10 pairing ,but Henley’s execution tanked it. On the other hand, Morikawa/English was already the weakest option available on paper. Then DeChambeau and Thomas’ pair fell flat to the LIV duo of Rahm and Hatton. This comes after DeChambeau faced certain scrutiny from known analysts.

Another comment says, “If I’m Captain Keegan, I’m sitting Thomas Henley, Morikawa, and English for the afternoon and let the other guys try. These guys have been a disaster this morning.” Bradley’s decision to bench alternatives like Cameron Young and JJ Spaun did not sit right with many. They were considered dynamic options but were left out. And after the scores, it might look like Bradley’s morning pairs leaned more towards “names” than form or fit. Echoing the sentiment, another one said, “Keegan should be fired on the spot for that Morikawa / English pairing. One of the more baffling decisions I’ve seen.” Morikawa/English was rated 132nd of 132 by Data Golf in terms of expected performance. Going up against McIlroy/Fleetwood (+2.15 skill rating), it was always a mismatch. Europe won 4 of the first 6 holes easily.

Fans also went after Bradley’s captain’s pick decision.”Shocker: Morikawa wasn’t a good pick. Justin Thomas wasn’t a good pick. Also, Morikawa and English pairing never made any sense.” Collin Morikawa, on his own, hasn’t shown any sort of exceptional performance this season. If one thinks of it, his selection was purely based on his past Ryder Cup experiences. On the other hand, Justin Thomas had one win on the PGA Tour this year, at the RBC Heritage. This, too, came after three years. But still, in comparison, his performance stat is better than Morikawa’s. He had eight top-10 finishes and made the cut in 19 out of the 21 events played.

At last, one fan stated all the data, which goes against everything Bradley put into the course today. “The Ryder Cup “captain” role is just classic overblown professional golf main character self-important prattle. Give anyone on golf Twitter an earpiece and a pen, and a coloring book, and they could make teams with the same variance of outcomes. It’s golf, man. But rolling out Collin/Harris, @DataGolf hypothetical 132/132 data-driven worst pairing, is something. Why not CAM YOUNG (NY Bred) or JJ SPAUN (US OPEN) to bang with this crowd early? This is all my current train of thought. Could change.”

One might agree to this, as the Captain’s role just involves staying behind the rope and observing the gameplay. His main task comes when deciding the pairs, and Bradley, after Day 1, seemed to have failed in that. He could have sent JJ Spaun, as the man has one Major this year, but for some reason, he held him back. Now, what exactly was the strategy behind this is not known.

All this ruckus comes after Bradey urged his players to play in the Procore Championship so that he could observe them and then decide on the pairings. All in all, it’s just the start of the even,t and Bradley can change the result. Otherwise, he would have to carry the mark of captaining a team that lost on its home turf. Surely, he won’t want that.