Steve Stricker says Patrick Reed has apologised over Ryder Cup row

Steve Stricker was unveiled as the 29th US Ryder Cup captain in Milwaukee. Picture: Stacy Revere/Getty Images

Despite losing only one of their seven matches together in 2014 at Gleneagles and 2016 at Hazeltine, Reed and Spieth were controversially split up by Stricker’s predecessor, Jim Furyk, at Le Golf National, where the Americans suffered a crushing defeat.

Reed, the Masters champion, blamed Spieth for the end of the successful partnership while he also used an interview conducted an hour after the US team’s press conference to claim that it was “not smart” of Furyk to have left him out of two sessions over the opening two days.

“I have already reached out to Patrick and we’ve had a good conversation,” revealed Stricker after his widely-tipped appointment as Padraig Harrington’s opposite number for te 43rd staging was confirmed. “As far as he is concerned and I am, too, it is handled.

“He’s apologised and spoken to the players. He spoke to me and and I asked him what to expect from him, too. He’s like, ‘you know what I’ve got your guys’ backs. I’m there for the team’. He’s very committed.

“He wasn’t comfortable with what happened in Paris. He didn’t like how all that transformed. I said, ‘listen, we are about moving on and going forward and let’s point towards this next team’. I hope to have him be a part of this team if he is playing well. That was one of the things on my to do list, to talk to him and see his side of things.”

Stricker, 51, is the first American to serve in the role despite never having won a major championship. Harrington has three of those titles to his name. The Irishman also played in seven Ryder Cups, four more than Stricker.

Where Stricker has the edge over Harrington is that he’s already tasted victory as a captain, having been at the helm as the US beat the Internationals 19-11 in the 2017 Presidents Cup in New Jersey. That, probably more than the fact he was one of Furyk’s vice captains last year, is why Stricker seems to have been the only man in the frame for this gig.

“He was the overwhelming choice of all of us on the committee and also the players,” said Tiger Woods, a member of the task force set up in the wake of a heavy 2014 defeat in Perthshire, speaking in his press conference at the WGC-Mexico Championship in Mexico City.

“We all felt it was his time. He was deserving. His leadership in the Presidents Cup and  the Ryder Cup has been  tremendous.”

According to Woods, Stricker won’t be scared to kick backsides if that’s what he feels is necessary to get the trophy back in a match being played in his home state of Wisconsin.

“Everyone knows he is such a nice guy,” added Woods. “But below that exterior is a fieryness and competitiveness. He’ll be a good communicator with the players, but he can put his foot down when he has to and that is an important part of the job.”

Stricker, who has appointed Furyk as his first vice captain, said in response to that comment: “I’m not afraid to speak up. I take it all in. I listen to everybody and, if I have to make a tough decision, I will. I am comfortable with that. I realise that it rests on the captain’s shoulders. I had to make some tough decisions with the Presidents Cup. It is about making sure we are on the same page.”

Asked about Europe having the edge in this contest over the past two decades, he added: “We don’t lack the talent or the intensity. They’ve just come up with some key putts. In Paris, I truly believe in that home course advantage, the course really suited their players. And we just didn’t play well. They rolled with it. They made some of those key putts.

“At times we haven’t been able to do this. But this is a new Ryder Cup coming up. It stung again last year after winning at Hazeltine but the guys are already fired up about trying to get it back.’’

Harrington is hoping the fact Whistling Straits is a links-style course might favour the Europeans. “You would think that,” admitted Stricker. “But I will have to remind our guys that we played on a links course in ’91 at Kiawah which the US won!”