Embarrassing aftermath of Team USA loss in Ryder Cup continues
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 04 Oct 2018
Johnson and Koepka.
The Team USA that bowed to its European counterpart in the 2018 Ryder Cup was arguably the most talented in the history of the event.
The Americans, made up of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Webb Simpson, were shamed by a European team that proved to have had better chemistry and seemed more interested in competing than anything else.
Four days after the loss, emotions have been running high with a lot finger-pointing made by team members to another causing embarrassment to the team and its members.
The latest of which was the reported near fist fight between Johnson and Koepka during the victory party for Team Europe.
James Corrigan of The Telegraph reported that Johnson and Koepka nearly came to blows and had to be separated while they were visiting the European team room after the Ryder Cup ended on Sunday.
While the exact reason for the altercation is unknown, Golf Channel?s Tim Rosaforte confirmed the same day that it did, in fact, take place.
Johnson and Koepka, two former U.S. Open champions, played together in the Saturday afternoon foursomes, losing to Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson.
The two are known close friends and often work out together in Florida, which is part of what made the altercation so surprising.
Johnson?s fiancee Paulina Gretzky was nearby when the incident took place, and a source swore that the wife of a European golfer who witnessed it was ?clearly shocked and upset by the nastiness, which was very threatening.?
Between the Ryder Cup altercation and some of the rumors that have been swirling about his relationship with Gretzky, Johnson seems to be making headlines for a lot more than just his golf swing lately.
Fresh report from French publication L?Equipe claimed the issues between the two former U.S. Open champions began on the team plane from Atlanta to Paris prior to the event.
According to a translation of the story, US captain Jim Furyk asked Johnson and Koepka to put their differences aside for the better of the team. The two were originally supposed to play together in Friday afternoon foursomes, but Furyk ended up having to change his pairings because of the feud.
?The atmosphere was horrible, Jim Furyk was devastated,? a source told L?Equipe.
Johnson and Koepka ended up playing together in the Saturday afternoon foursomes, but they apparently had not smoothed things over at that point.
Earlier, team vice-captain Graeme McCowell commented that while ?Team Europe left egos at the door, Team USA played up to their egos.?
Patrick Reed, the self-styled Captain America, suggested the reason why a team with six of the world's top 10 in it - plus 14-time major winner Woods and veteran Mickelson - failed so badly was because there was no sense of equality.
Reed, for another, claimed Spieth, one of the USA's best performers over the last three events, did not want to reprise his successful partnership with him and that he was given no say in the matter and so on and so forth.
Woods even owned part of the blame for the defeat.
The US falling to Europe in the Ryder Cup is nothing new, especially when the event takes place overseas. Still, the stuff that went on off the course this year is pretty embarrassing for the team.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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