Visits: 10
He said he had conveyed to Furyk his desire to be paired with Spieth, who is not a good friend but with whom he has a chemistry that is hard to pinpoint, much less replicate. Spieth was his first choice, Reed said. His second choice, he said, was Woods, whom he said he loved.
But Reed fully expected to be paired with Spieth, and he felt blindsided, he said, when Furyk decided to pair Spieth with Justin Thomas, who starred with Rickie Fowler in last year’s Presidents Cup.
Spieth and Thomas have known each other since childhood and are great friends, but Reed didn’t see why that should have been a factor in splitting up two winning pairings (Spieth/Reed and Thomas/Fowler). Reed described the decision-making process as “a buddy system” that ignores the input of all but a few select players.
“The issue’s obviously with Jordan not wanting to play with me,” Reed said, adding, “I don’t have any issue with Jordan. When it comes right down to it, I don’t care if I like the person I’m paired with or if the person likes me as long as it works and it sets up the team for success. He and I know how to make each other better. We know how to get the job done.”
Spieth and Thomas went 3-1 as a team (their lone loss was by 5 and 4 to Molinari and Fleetwood). Fowler went 1-2 while playing with Dustin Johnson, the world No. 1.
Reed and Woods lost their first match against Fleetwood and Molinari, after which, Reed said, Woods apologized for letting him down. He said he told him, “We win together as a team and we lose together as a team.”
Reed expected Furyk to tweak the pairings after the first session. “I thought he might go back with the groups that have worked in the past,” he said, noting that Europe’s captain, Thomas Bjorn, sent McIlroy back out with Ian Poulter in the afternoon after he lost in the morning while paired with Thorbjorn Olesen.