U.S. Ryder Cup players enjoying the company early at Procore Championship

NAPA, Calif. – The results were mixed for the U.S. Ryder Cup team on the Thursday leaderboard at the Procore Championship, which is doubling as a tune-up for this month’s matches. But it’s clear that captain Keegan Bradley was less concerned with birdies and bogey than he was bonding.

Bradley orchestrated the groupings for Rounds 1 and 2 at the PGA Tour’s fall opener to maximize his team’s time together, with 10 of his 12 players travelling to Napa to prepare for the showdown with Europe in two weeks.

Scottie Scheffler played alongside Russell Henley, who he seems likely to play with at Bethpage Black, and J.J. Spaun. The world No. 1 was followed by Harris English and Collin Morikawa (along with vice captain Webb Simpson); Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay (with vice captain Gary Woodland); and Cameron Young, Ben Griffin and Justin Thomas, in consecutive tee times.

Griffin paced the U.S. team with an opening 64 that left him tied for second while Henley was a shot back at 7 under and Spaun tied for seventh at 5 under. Scheffler was at 2 under followed by Burns at 1 under. Morikawa, Thomas, Cantlay, Young and English were all tied at even par.

While Bradley, who is attending this week’s event but is not playing, was likely pleased with Team USA’s solid start, he has made it clear this week is more about familiarity and learning each other’s tendencies.

Some of the U.S. team members have plenty of history, like Scheffler and Henley who have been paired together nine times in their PGA Tour careers, in addition to the duo’s two matches together at last year’s Presidents Cup. But for Spaun, the pairing was a valuable opportunity to bond with potential partners.

“I haven’t played with Scottie much and I think that’s what Keegan’s goal is, just to get everyone familiarized with each other. He obviously knows I haven’t played with him very much,” said Spaun, who has been paired five times with Scheffler on Tour. “Whatever the pairings end up being, we want to get comfortable playing with each other.”

There are potential partners who have little experience together, like English and Morikawa, who would be considered a strong alternate-shot option for captain Keegan. Although they’ve played together five times on Tour they have not been in the same group since 2021.

Griffin, one of four rookies on this year’s team, has never been paired with either Young or Thomas in a Tour event, which likely made Thursday’s grouping something of a valuable introduction.

“It’s just really awesome to hang out with all these guys, get to know everyone better,” Griffin said. “Then play rounds out there together as well, just see each other’s games, see if we maybe mesh well with each other, if we have any advice to give Keegan on pairings, but I think all the captains kind of know what’s going to happen, they paired us all up together for reasons probably and we’re just trying to have fun with each other and gear up.”