‘I don’t think I did a better job’: With the US still in decline, Brandt Snedeker is already falling on his sword

In a city that has seen its share of coaching failures, American captain Brandt Snedeker was already falling on his sword Saturday in Medinah.

Please note, Snedeker’s team was not defeated in this Presidents Cup; They trail Geoff Ogilvy’s international team by three points heading into Sunday’s singles, where a dozen points remain up for grabs. But given that the United States, a day after being swept in foursomes, painted the standings completely red in both Saturday sessions while trimming its deficit by just one point, Snedeker couldn’t help but feel responsible for this deflating performance that has his team on the verge of becoming the first American team to lose this event at home.

“So proud of the way they held on this week despite all my mistakes,” Snedeker told NBC’s Cara Banks on Saturday night, moments after the Internationals clawed back from a 2-2 foursome draw to take the lead in the final session for the first time on American soil.

Snedeker was then asked into Medinah’s interview room to elaborate on these perceived errors.

Although vague, Snedeker’s response revealed that he believes teams reflect their captain and that the Americans’ poor play can only come from a mediocre captain, even though Snedeker didn’t make a single shot this week.

“I tried to work as hard as I could to put these guys in the best situation possible, and I don’t think I did a very good job this week to be where we are right now,” Snedeker said. “They’re counting on me to put them in the best position where they feel comfortable. I hold myself to a high standard. I don’t think I’ve done the best job for them in that room. They’ve given me everything I could ask for, and I just have to find ways to put these guys in better situations. I don’t think I’ve held up my end of the bargain. … I mean, there’s a lot of different ways, whether it’s through matchups, whether it’s through anything else. There’s a thousand different ways I can think of right now.

“Honestly, I often questioned myself before being in this situation.”

Didn’t the soft-spoken Snedeker manage to command the team room? Unlike a few years ago in Rome, no reports of such conflicts have surfaced.

Does he regret his captain’s choices? Rookie Jacob Bridgeman is the only one of the six American wild cards without a point.

Reading between the coaches’ many lines of speeches (yes, there were tons of them!), Snedeker seems to regret not pairing Chris Gotterup and Cameron Young together sooner. The two Met Section products practiced together all three days, but after American stalwart Justin Thomas turned back the clock on Thursday in four balls, Snedeker opted to ride the hot hand. The most logical place to insert Thomas in the Friday quartet order, in Snedeker’s mind, was in place of Gotterup, who, to be fair, struggled on the first day.

Thomas and Young lost to Adam Scott and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, the latter of whom became a one-session guy for Ogilvy.

For the second session in a row, the United States failed to pull any punches, putting all red on the board again in Saturday afternoon’s foursomes, only for the Internationals to come back to 2-2 and take a three-point lead on Sunday.

On Saturday, Gotterup and Young teamed up to win two convincing points, including a 6 and 4 thrashing of Scott and Sungjae Im.

“It was kind of a duo that we circled early on in this process of putting those two guys together in alternate shooting,” Snedeker said. “They went out there today and played fantastic. … I’m happy we found this pair.”

He was just late for the punch.

“I think Friday was a little confusing,” Young said. “That’s kind of how it happened. We were both looking forward to the duet.”

Snedeker also made other puzzling decisions, including several on Saturday:

Trotting Bridgeman and Russell Henley bow out for the foursomes despite an uninspiring two-birdie effort from the pair on Friday.

Benching of world number 1 Scottie Scheffler in the afternoon.

And somehow he cleared Young’s name in his NBC interview on the first tee as the four-way matches began.

Snedeker: “We added some wrinkles in there, obviously using CG, uh, and, uh, sorry, I’m a little dizzy right now. Going with CG and…”

Banks: “Cameron Young”.

Snedeker: “Cameron Young. Thank you very much.”

Henley and Bridgeman won each of their first three holes against Corey Conners and Nick Taylor. They led by the same margin with eight to play. But then the wheels fell off; Henley missed a 4-footer on No. 14 and fired a shot into the bunker on No. 15 to turn the game in favor of the Canadians, who came away with a one-point victory.

When asked to defend the decision, Snedeker seemed incredulous: “I mean, geez, guys. Sixth-ranked player in the world and Jacob Bridgeman; those guys are studs.”

The 16th Presidents Cup will conclude with 12 singles matches on Sunday at Medinah Country Club.

Then there was Scheffler, who went 2-1 alongside Sam Burns, including two four-ball victories despite a total of four birdies on his own ball, but in his Cup career to date he has only one four-ball win. While Scheffler and Burns put aside Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune by winning three straight holes, Snedeker made the decision to abandon Scheffler in favor of pairing Burns with Wyndham Clark.

“It kind of unfolded (during the four balls),” Snedeker said. “I had some ideas about it: Scottie puts the world on his shoulders, and he puts his whole team on his shoulders and takes on a lot of things. I was really trying to give him some energy for tomorrow. I know tomorrow is going to be a big day. It’s obviously a tough decision, a very tough decision to become the best player in the world and probably one of the best players I’ve ever seen in person. I just want to put him in the best situation tomorrow to have a good day and rest.”

Perhaps adding insult to injury, the news was broken to Scheffler not by Snedeker or an assistant captain, but during Scheffler’s post-match television interview.

“Yeah, our team is a great team and I can’t wait to come out and support the guys,” Scheffler said. “Yeah, it’ll be fun this afternoon, and yeah, cheer them on, get some rest.”

Snedeker added Saturday night: “I couldn’t get to him before, so the TV people told him before I could get to him. Scottie is a team guy. He wants everything best for this team. He would run through a wall for all these guys in this room. He took it like a champ.”

Scheffler will return to action for a singles match against Nico Echavarria, who was also rested; the rookie hasn’t played since Thursday.

This is game four, as Scheffler (who, by the way, was put on the board by Snedeker, giving Ogilvy the chance to compete with his sacrificial lamb) is joined in the top half of the order by Young, Clark, Thomas, Burns and Gotterup. As we saw a few weeks ago at the Walker Cup, where Great Britain and Ireland won the singles session 7-3 to complete their comeback from three points, front loading provides the best route to rally. Even with the Presidents Cup’s unique pairs process, where captains alternate putting players on the board in real time, the Americans must build momentum from the start, regardless of individual matchups.

And so, this was perhaps the easiest decision of the week for Snedeker.

“We led pretty heavily,” Snedeker said. “We have some studs up there at the top of the lineup that are going to go out there and hopefully put some red on the board, get that crowd behind us. We have studs all throughout the lineup. We have guys out there to do what they’re supposed to do. I know what kind of players we have in there. We have a group of guys that have won a lot of golf on the PGA Tour. They’ve won major championships. They know what championship golf is like. It’s a championship golf course. It’s going to be tough tomorrow.

“They have the courage to go out there and do the right things.”

And if they don’t, Snedeker has already shown he has no problem being blamed for it.