That’s an awful lie Brooks
And we’re not talking about the rough at the Ryder Cup
SO it looks like Team America are gonna need a bigger taskforce.
During a week’s decompression in the more relaxed surroundings of the Dunhill Links at St Andrews it was fascinating to see the fallout descend after an explosive week at Le Golf National.
For a start, there remains the question of whether the so-called Bash Brothers, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, lived up to their nickname in a boozy bust-up after Europe’s victory.
Koepka’s indignant response at St Andrews – flatly denying any fallout and accusing the media of making it up – suddenly looks disingenuous at best, downright lies at worst, in light of captain Jim Furyk’s comments last night.
Speaking to the Golf Channel in America, Furyk said: “Whatever altercation started, or what happened, it was very brief. It was very short. Neither one of them really took anything out of it.
“They’re like brothers. Brothers may argue, brothers get into it. But they’re as close as they’ve ever been and it really had no effect on either one of them.”
Sometimes by attempting to play down a story you only fan the flames.
And in Furyk’s confirmation of a bust-up he has just exposed Koepka’s “nothing to see here folks, move along” denial for the barefaced PR deflection it was. Shame on him. And if he thinks this will be the end of the matter Koepka is in for a long two years until the next Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. But he’s not the only one. The widely-held wisdom is Steve Stricker will be named US captain, presumably followed swiftly by Kofi Annan’s confirmation as his assistant. For he could use a former UN Secretary General for help considering the diplomatic job he has on his hands to clear up this mess. None more so than the problem of what to do with Patrick Reed.
Furyk is the first to have stuck his head above the parapet since Reed’s comments in a New York Times interview took a swipe at his captaincy and launched a rocket at Jordan Spieth for not wanting to resume their successful foursome partnership.
The skipper’s revelation Reed had known “for weeks” about his plans to pair him with Tiger Woods echoes the comments of an unnamed US team member who’d branded Reed “full of s***” last week.
So far Spieth is keeping a dignified silence but he can’t hide much longer from a story that won’t go away.
And a tactful response may be hard to produce from Spieth’s current position backed into a corner by Reed’s outburst.
So with a bubbling feud on the verge of spilling into an all-out public slanging match, what on earth do Stricker and the PGA of America do now?
Kick Reed off the team for the sake of harmony? Impossible.
The qualifying system is open to all eligible Tour members so if he earns enough points, he’s in without question.
Also, the legal implications of booting him off the roster doesn’t bear thinking about when you consider the commercial value of being a modern-day Ryder Cupper.
So if Reed plays well, Stricker is stuck with him.
Maybe he should ask Augusta National to sit Spieth next to Reed for his first Champions Dinner on the eve of the Masters in April. It’s unlikely humble pie will be on the defending champ’s chosen menu that night.
But in all seriousness, perhaps that is the only way to solve this one. Get them in a room together, talk it out, clear the air, bump heads if necessary and move this issue the heck on.
Because until there’s common ground found and presented to the world as publicly as Reed just aired their dirty linen, Team USA cannot move forward.
Captain-in-waiting Stricker can’t function when one hand is too busy trying to keep his players from each other’s throats.
Do USA kick Reed off the team for the sake of harmony? Impossible