Furyk also said Patrick Reed knew of decision to split him from Jordan Spieth in advance of the Ryder Cup
Tuesday 9 October 2018 16:35, UK
USA team captain Jim Furyk has confirmed there was an altercation between Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka in the wake of their Ryder Cup defeat to Europe.
Europe won 17.5-10.5 at Le Golf National, with Johnson and Koepka subsequently falling out at the European team party to celebrate victory, according to Furyk.
Koepka has already moved to deny reports of a dust-up with Johnson on the plane over to France for the Ryder Cup and, despite playing down the incident, Furyk admitted they briefly fell out after the defeat.
"Whatever altercation started, or what happened, it was very brief," Furyk told the Golf Channel.
"It was very short. Neither one of them really took anything out of it.
"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."
Furyk also insisted he had made it clear he had decided not to pair Patrick Reed with Jordan Spieth well in advance of the Ryder Cup.
Spieth and Reed had forged a successful partnership at the 2014 Ryder Cup, one that continued to prove fruitful at subsequent Presidents Cups and the 2016 Ryder Cup.
Reed instead played with Tiger Woods at Le Golf National, going 0-2 in the fourballs, while Spieth teamed with Justin Thomas, the latter pairing going 3-1 together.
"When I started looking at who [Tiger] would pair well with, I kept coming back to Patrick Reed," added Furyk.
"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."
Despite the wide margin of defeat, Furyk insisted he was happy with his picks for the team.
"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."
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