Justin Thomas has reiterated Ryder Cup captain Jim Fuyrk’s claim that players knew of pairings weeks in advance.
Speaking to reporters at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, Thomas was asked about the Ryder Cup fallout following the Americans’ loss and Patrick Reed’s comments. Reed said he was blindsided by Furyk’s decision to split up Reed and Spieth, yet Furyk, in a sit down with Golf Channel’s Tim Rosaforte that aired on Monday, said Reed knew of the pairings weeks in advance.
Thomas, who was paired with Spieth, backed up Furyk.
“That was something obviously that had been talked about in advance,” Thomas said, “but all I was worried about was I knew that I was going to play with Jordan and we were worrying about taking care of our point and taking care of our match because it is a team event and it’s a team week and we’re all worried about each other, but that’s kind of our thing is we do or job,” Thomas said. “So you do your job and Jordan and I’s job was to go out and get a point and that’s what we were fortunate enough to at least get three out of four. But no, everybody has their own thoughts and feelings, but at the end of the day we just didn’t play well enough.”
Thomas and Spieth finished 3-1 as a team, while Reed and Tiger Woods were 0-2. Reed, who won his singles match to finish the week 1-2, also told The New York Times that it wasn’t smart to sit him twice.
“It’s so easy to look at the captains and say it’s their fault, but at the end of the day we didn’t play well enough,” Thomas said. “The Europeans played exponentially better than we did. That’s why they beat us as bad they did. It’s easy to look at pairings and say, well, we should have done this or we could have done that, but it doesn’t matter if you put the two winningest guys of all-time together, if they don’t play well, they’re going to lose.”
