Stricker: 'There was a plan to partner Brooks and Bryson'

US Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker has revealed that there was a light plan to pair Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau at the Ryder Cup after what seems like their never-ending pantomime feud. But, having supposedly made up at the start of the week and happily answering questions about one another in the build-up, the duo were happy to be partnered if it meant furthering the cause of the hosts.

“We kind of had it in our back pocket for like Saturday afternoon if we needed it, if we were down and we wanted to provide some sort of lift or spice to the team,” Stricker explained. “But again, we talked about it; all our assistants talked about it. We felt like it may have been, if we did put them together, that that story would have been bigger than the story itself, you know, the team and trying to win the cup. So we kind of shelved it, I guess.”

As it transpired there was no need to light up Whistling Straits with the duo as America kept throwing out the big punches with DeChambeau playing with Scottie Scheffler and Koepka with Berger (in both foursomes) and a round of fourballs with Jordan Spieth.

As for Spieth’s pairing with Koepka that meant that he and Justin Thomas were split up, a decision that wasn’t exactly part of the script.

“We told the guys earlier in the week, like listen, fourball, just be prepared that you could potentially go out with anybody,” Stricker said. “Like I said, all these guys got along really well with each other, we felt there was a ton of different combinations that could happen, so it was a little bit of a blindside to Jordan because quite frankly, and Jordan wasn’t very happy with me and they’ve been — that story goes back a long ways because they’ve been in my head, pocket, Jordan and JT, for a long time wanting to play best ball together and then they end up not even playing together.”