CHASKA, Minn. – The pairings for Friday’s opening team session won’t be revealed until Thursday evening, but there was one twosome that the U.S. team had already etched into the lineup.
Two years ago at Gleneagles, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed went 2-0-1 as a team and the duo spent this week playing in the same pod, an indication captain Davis Love III has no intention of splitting up the young Americans.
The duo’s success is rooted in a rivalry that began more than a decade ago.
“I’m going to go out and try to beat him on every hole. It’s just one of those things; I grew up with Jordan,” Reed said. “I’ve played junior golf with him, amateur golf; I feel like I’ve known Jordan my whole life.”
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The thinking for both players is if they beat each other then their chances of beating the Europeans is pretty good. For the two Texans, it’s a foundation that has been in the making for some time.
“Oh man, since we were in diapers,” Reed smiled when asked the first time the two played each other. “Probably when we were 8, 9 years old.”
Reed estimated it would have been the Texas-Oklahoma Junior Golf Tournament where the two first played against each other, but he couldn’t even guess how many times they’d played each other.
“There have been so many times growing up,” he said. “I couldn’t even say.”
