Ton of talent in Spieththomas pairing

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — The buzz around Whistling Straits is about big drives, huge throngs of people and a U.S. team so talented it will have to search for ways to throw away this Ryder Cup.

But the Americans’ chances of reclaiming the Cup will likely revolve around a pair of young stars who became fast friends long before they became household names.

Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas almost surely will be paired together in both foursomes and fourballs beginning Friday on the shore of Lake Michigan. What they deliver will go a long way toward deciding the Americans’ chances of reversing their fortunes in a team event that has not gone their way in recent years.

They won big together outside Paris three years ago, going 3-1 in the team matches. That wasn’t enough to make up for teammates collapsing around them, but it was a pretty good indication Spieth and Thomas would be forces for years to come in the Ryder Cup.

While U.S. captain Steve Stricker has some decisions to make in most pairings, the Spieth-thomas combination isn’t one of them.

Not that Stricker was about to reveal his planned pairings before their time.

“We’ve had a pretty good game plan from a while back, and we’re putting that into play,” Stricker said. “We’re putting that in place.”

While much of the attention has been centered on big-hitting Bryson Dechambeau and who he’s playing with — most likely not Brooks Koepka — Stricker has a lot of options on a team so talented it includes 11 of the top 20 players in the world — and Scottie Scheffler sitting at No. 21.

But if there was ever a natural pairing on an American squad focused increasingly on team camaraderie, it’s Spieth and Thomas, who first met when they were 13 and Thomas was so short he was hitting fairway woods into most par 4s.