'Suck it up and go win a damn point': US urged to pair feuding Ryder Cup team-mates Koepka and DeChambeau

Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau should get “their heads out of their damn a----” and be paired together at this week’s Ryder Cup. That is the view of Butch Harmon in what feels to be a growing consensus here at Whistling Straits.

Steve Stricker, the US captain, has already spoken to both players and asked them to “put to bed” their squabble that began more than two years ago. And while Stricker said on Monday he doubted picking a Koepka-DeChambeau partnership, he did not entirely rule out the proposition.

Harmon, the celebrated coach who has overseen the careers of the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, feels that far from being bizarre it would actually make sense. “I’d pair them together,” Harmon said. “I’d say, ‘all right boys, get your heads out of you’re a---- and go play.’ I’d put them out the first day, first match out, Brooks and DeChambeau. I’d say, ‘Guys, I want you to suck it up and go win a damn point. This isn’t about you; this is about the Ryder Cup. This is about your team. … You can have your battles next week.’”

As the opening session is foursomes, it is difficult to envisage a DeChambeau-Koepka duo straight from the off. The alternate-shot format obviously involves them playing one ball and having to make collective decisions. Considering their history, that might be too great of a stretch and as DeChambeau can be erratic, it could not even make sense from a pure golf perspective even if they were best buddies.

However, the afternoon fourballs could be an option, as the former Europe captain Bernard Gallacher told Telegraph Sport.

“You’d really want to bang their heads together, but they may actually make a good pairing in the better-ball format,” he said. “We saw in 2014 how Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth would actually try to beat each other in fourballs and they proved a great pairing. Stricker might tell them, ‘right, just go and see who scores the best score on each hole - don’t worry what the opposition are doing’. They both make a lot of birdies. It could be very potent. If only!”

Naturally, the example of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will be held up as an example of what can go wrong when enemies are thrown together. Hal Sutton famously paired the then world’s Nos 1&2 at the 2004 Ryder Cup and watched in horror as they were beaten twice on the Friday. Harmon does not believe it to be a relevant comparison.

“It wasn’t that Phil and Tiger feuded, they just didn’t get along, they just didn’t have anything to do with each other, Harmon said on the “Off Course” podcast. “It wasn’t like they were mad at each other like these do are pretending to be. I think a lot of it has become an act to be honest with you.”

DeChambeau arrived here on Monday afternoon and headed directly to the practice range where he predictably waged unholy war with his driver. Last week, he was preparing at home in Texas - and not just for the Ryder Cup.

He is taking part in next week’s World Long Drive Championship and raised eyebrows when admitting “I’ve wrecked my hands”. However, he is still launching the ball ridiculous distances. DeChambeau posted on his Instagram feed a video of him in his range, hitting a drive 405 yards with a ball speed of 215mph. A message displays on the screen: “It’s the Ryder Cup - how many greens will I drive?”

In contrast Kopeka has been battling a wrist injury that forced him out of the Tour Championship two weeks ago and stopped him from joining Stricker and the rest of the team-mates on a reconnaissance mission here last week.

Koepka announced last week that he was fit, but an article published in Golf Digest also suggested that he is not a huge fan of the biennial duel. Koepka called it “odd, a bit hectic” and expressed frustration at not being able “to take naps”. Stricker batted the issue away, although really he had no other option.

“I've talked to him about it,” Stricker said. “I've had experiences with Brooks over many, many of these teams, and the conversations that I have had with him and what I have personally seen in the teamroom does not jive up to what I was reading in those articles. I am not worried. He assures me he's healthy and assures me that he is 100 percent all-in and whatever he need to do for this team to become the winner at the end of the week.”

Captains cut contrasting figures ahead of Ryder Cup

By James Corrigan, at Whistling Straits

The two captains cut contrasting figures here in their joint press conference to herald the start of Ryder Cup week, with a confident Padraig Harrington saying his gameplan is fully prepared while a nervous Steve Stricker admitted that he and his backroom staff had not even settled on their pairings.

Of course, it is far too early to claim that Europe are one-up, especially as Harrington is such a natural talker. But Stricker clearly felt under pressure and it manifested itself in the answer considering his starting foursome duos for Friday’s opening session - and beyond.

“We are still in the process,” Stricker said. “We have good ideas about our pairings, but we are still in the process of finalizing things, ironing things out, which direction we want to go.”

Compare this to Harrington’s answer. “We have a game plan, a pretty strong game plan, all the way through, well-prepared,” he said. “But from being a vice captain, I know that there are unknowns, things change as you go on through the week. You do everything you can to have a set program ahead but you are ready for when something happens so that you can move quickly, not be acting retrospectively.

“Even though we don't know what's going to happen, you still have an idea of, you know, X, Y or Z comes along, and, well, we can pivot this way. We have plenty of options. But if everything went smoothly which it very rarely does, you could probably set out everything now. But as I said, we will expect some unknowns and some things to happen that will need to be dealt with.”

Harrington also was prepared to set the battle lines, with the US team fielding six rookies and Europe containing four players aged 40 or over. “At the end of the week the experience versus the non-experience will be thrashed out many times to determine what the result was,” Harrington said. “Certainly it's pretty tried and tested in Europe that we're going to go with experience when we're coming across here. We do have a few rookies on the team to provide that enthusiasm but we are strongly relying on that experience.”

Stricker is counting on his Boys Brigade to fend off Harrington’s Dad’s Army. But as he searches for that “magical” bond which is always cited as the reason for the US only winning three of the last 12 matches, the Wisconsinite sounded anything but convincing despite being on home turf.

“I don't know if we are getting in our own way at some times,” he said. “I'm trying to bring an energy, a little bit more relaxed, and I don't know if we play a little bit more relaxed in The Presidents Cup teams versus The Ryder Cup.

“Different competition, obviously. Europe brings a strong team and they play well and are tough and we always have tough matches that seem to have gone their way more times than our lately. But we look to try to change that this week and move on. We are worried about this one and just trying to win this one.”