One week after watching the Europeans celebrate at Le Golf National, Jim Furyk admitted that the sting of defeat still lingers from his stint as U.S. Ryder Cup captain.
“It’s been tough,” Furyk said. “I was the leader of that team, and it didn’t go the way we wanted. It’ll always bother me.”
Furyk sat down with Golf Channel insider Tim Rosaforte for a wide-ranging interview in the wake of a 17 1/2 to 10 1/2 defeat to Thomas Bjorn’s European squad last week in Paris. While topics included the demanding course setup and the underwhelming performances from Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, two captain’s picks who combined to go 0-6, Furyk also expanded on his decision to pair Woods with Patrick Reed in two fourball matches.
Reed seemingly lobbed a grenade at his teammates and captain in the wake of the American loss, explaining that it was Jordan Spieth’s idea to break up their formidable pairing from the past two Ryder Cups and calling the decision-making process a “buddy system” that excludes the input of some players.
But according to Furyk, Reed was in the loop on his pairing with Woods well in advance, all the way down to having a discussion with the captain about where exactly he’d like to be slotted among the four matches during Friday’s opening session.
“When I started looking at who (Tiger) would pair well with, I kept coming back to Patrick Reed,” Furyk said. “There was always the idea that we could go Tiger and JT (Justin Thomas), and Patrick and Jordan, but ultimately they knew going into the week, weeks in advance, they knew they would start the Ryder Cup with Patrick and Tiger being partners.”
Furyk also discussed the other piece of tabloid fodder to emerge after the tournament, that being an alleged incident between Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka on their final evening in Paris. Koepka denied the report last week at the Alfred Dunhill Links, and Furyk clearly refuted an additional report that anything happened on the team charter to France.
And while Furyk reiterated the close relationship between the two friends, he also seemed to imply that some sort of incident, however minor, did occur.
“Whatever altercation started, or what happened, it was very brief. It was very short. Neither one of them really took anything out of it,” Furyk said. “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.”
Although Furyk admitted that the sound defeat his squad suffered has left him with a “hollow feeling,” he told Rosaforte that after 18 months of preparation for three days of matches, the only thing that surprised him was the final outcome for a team that he very much believed in – and still does.
“I’d take those 12 players into the fire any day, on any course. And I still would,” Furyk said. “Last week didn’t work out the way we wanted, but I love those guys and I love what we had together in the team room. And I’d do it all over again.”
Source: Internet
