Someone on the United States’ Ryder Cup team has zero patience with Patrick Reed questioning his pairings after this weekend’s blowout loss to Europe.
Reed essentially threw captain Jim Furyk under the bus by telling The New York Times on Sunday that he was “blindsided” by not playing with Jordan Spieth after the pair’s past success in international competitions.
“He is so full of s—,” a member of Team USA told the New York Post on Monday. “Blindsided, my ass. He begged to play with Tiger.”
Reed went 0-2 with Tiger Woods before winning his singles match over Tyrrell Hatton on Sunday. Reid and Woods sat Friday and Saturday afternoons.
“For somebody as successful in the Ryder Cup as I am, I don’t think it’s smart to sit me twice,” Reed had told the Times.
Spieth and Reed had been 4-1-2 in the Ryder Cup and 8-1-3 including the Presidents Cup. They went 2-0-1 four years ago at Gleneagles and were 2-1-1 two years ago at Hazeltine. But there had been rumblings in recent weeks that Spieth wanted out of the pairing. Reed had, on a few occasions, mockingly remarked that he had “carried” Spieth in several of their previous victories.
And earlier this year, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Reed was dismayed when a rules official did not give him a favorable ruling and was heard to say that “if I were Jordan Spieth,” he would have received it.
Spieth did have success being grouped with Justin Thomas, going 3-1.
On Saturday morning in a pairing with Woods, Reed struggled in a loss to Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood.
“He would have shot 83 on his own ball Saturday,” the Team USA member said to the Post. “He totally screwed Tiger. He has no clue how to play team golf. I saw firsthand how bad of a team player he was. Eleven players understood the concept of team golf and only one didn’t. Unfortunately, that one proved to be too costly for the team to overcome.”
Reed, 28, told The New York Times after the Americans’ crushing 17½-10½ defeat that the decision-making process around pairings was a “buddy system” that ignored the input of all but select players — which would imply Phil Mickelson and Woods, who along with Furyk, are part of a Ryder Cup committee put in place four years ago.
“I feel so bad for Jim, because he was an unreal captain,” the person told the Post. “He would have run through a wall for all 12 of the guys. Unfortunately, there were only 11 players that would have returned the favor.”