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The Loop

4 curious takeaways from the Presidents Cup Day 1 pairings

October 07, 2015

Thursday's Presidents Cup foursomes pairings are out and some of the decisions made by both captains have us scratching our heads. Here's a look at five choices we found particularly perplexing.

1) Bae's benching: One of the most intriguing stories entering the Presidents Cup was whether Sang-Moon Bae would be allowed to play in the matches. Bae has to perform two years of military service for South Korea, but he got an extension so he could have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of playing in this event in front of his home crowd. So what did International captain Nick Price do? Bench him, of course! Price's reasoning was that Bae's previously determined alternate-shot partner, Charl Schwartzel, wasn't feeling well. That may be the case, but it doesn't make it the right move. For an event that needs any buzz it can get, playing Bae -- and fellow native South Korean Danny Lee -- at every possible chance should have been a no-brainer.

2) Spieth and DJ: There's nothing wrong with the reigning player of the year playing with arguably the most talented player in the world. In fact, watching Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson go to work will probably be awesome. What's curious, though, is U.S. captain Jay Haas splitting up the one successful team for the U.S. at last year's Ryder Cup, Spieth and Patrick Reed. Haas said Spieth asked to play with DJ and that "whatever Jordan wants, Jordan gets right now." Fair enough. But isn't Jordan saying he wants to play with DJ basically the same as him saying he doesn't want to play with Reed? Odd.