J.J. Spaun was one of the best players on the PGA Tour this year and was expected to be a key part of the 2025 United States Ryder Cup team.

Spaun took Rory McIlroy to a playoff at The Players Championship and won the US Open at Oakmont with an incredible final putt.

USA captain Keegan Bradley was certainly excited to have the major winner on his team, but many felt he misused him at Bethpage Black.

Among Bradley’s most controversial decisions was not picking Spaun to play in either of the two foursomes sessions in New York.

An extremely consistent player, the US Open champion has now revealed whether he was surprised to play in the fourballs format instead.

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J.J. Spaun was surprised by Keegan Bradley’s foursomes decisions at the Ryder Cup

Spaun’s game is seemingly well-suited to playing in the alternate shot format, so it was surprising to see Bradley leave him out on Friday morning.

Spaun has now admitted to Trey Wingo that he was surprised by Bradley’s decision, although he did accept the captain’s reasoning.

“Maybe a little bit (surprised),” he said recently. “I wasn’t sure what format I would start in. I talked to Keegan a few weeks prior, and he was just adamant about having a pretty veteran-heavy lineup going out in the first match, which was foursomes.

“So, it had nothing to do with how I was playing or what equipment I played. It was more of he wanted to put guys out there first who have been in that arena, have had success, and have had the experience. Getting my feet wet in fourballs, which is probably an easier format, I think, was appropriate.

“But who knows? I don’t know what the thought process was for Saturday’s matches, but I think Keegan didn’t want to freak out and start changing things around, just assuming, put the batting lineup out there, and eventually get things turned around.”

Spaun also suggested that he thought he would be picked for the Saturday foursomes session after it had gone so badly for Team USA on Friday.

“Yeah, I thought there would be a little bit of a change, whether it was someone else… I think Cam [Young] was the only one who subbed in for the foursomes on Saturday,” he continued. “That was different, maybe.

“Honestly, though, the European team were playing so good. They were putting amazingly. They were shooting eight under par on alternate shot, which is just so hard to do.

“With the course setup, it boiled down to the putting, and we would make good putts and they would make it on top of us, or we’d be in there tight and they would make a 30 or 40 footer to beat us to the hole. That happened to me and Scottie on Friday.

“We both hammed and egged 13 through 16, birding those holes, and we didn’t win a hole as we were three down already. So, it’s like, what can you do? You birdie five holes in a row and don’t win a hole. They just outright beat us on Friday and Saturday. And unfortunately, it was just that we were too far behind going into Sunday.”

J.J. Spaun questions why the Europeans are so much better at foursomes

The United States’ recent record in foursomes at the Ryder Cup is embarrassing, to say the least, but there is no obvious solution.

Wingo asked Spaun why he thinks the European players are so much better at alternating shots, and he did not have the answer, either.

“That’s tough. I don’t know,” Spaun replied. “Behind the scenes, we did everything you possibly could under the sun to really prepare and match up the right foursome teams. We had analytics, ball testing, and personality tests. My god, we did everything.

“I don’t know, other than what the Europeans have, the confidence from winning tons of foursome matches…. I don’t know if that’s the difference maker, but that’s a really good question.

“I don’t know how you can go about making more events alternate shots, but there could be something in the European development, where alternate shot was a format played very often.

“I played Muirfield in Scotland this year, and literally, you can only have two balls in play at the club, no matter what time of day or who you’re playing with. So, if you have a foursome, you can only play two balls. So, an alternate shot between four guys. It’s weird. So, I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing or something that these guys are used to, but they might do it a lot more frequently, growing up over there in the European countries.”