Posted by Steve Keating
KOHLER, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Enemy Ryder Cup teammates Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau put their differences aside and focused their attention on beating Europe on Friday by adding points that led the United States to a dominant 6-2 -Guide helped.
The two men barely crossed on Friday, but when the dust settled they both appeared on the Whistling Straits results list.
Koepka had failed in the foursome early in the morning, Daniel Berger secured a full point with a 2 & 1 win over Lee Westwood and Matt Fitzpatrick.
DeChambeau didn’t show up for the afternoon’s four-ball session, when Scottie Scheffler worked together to tie a tie with Spanish world number one Jon Rahm and Briton Tyrrell Hatton, adding a half point to the US affair.
After the 0-3-0 at the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris, the half point was the first for DeChambeau, while Scheffler scored half a point on his competitive debut.
“I’m glad I have something for the team,” said DeChambeau. “Frustrating, but we fought hard.
“We had a lot more opportunities to do things and just didn’t use them.”
By the time they got to Whistling Straits for the biennial showdown, Koepka and DeChambeau were marked as hand grenades ready to be thrown into the U.S. team room, and their argument threatened to spill over and blow up American opportunities.
Both men made faint gestures to fix fences, but in the end it seemed the only thing they had in common was being US teammates.
“Do what you’re supposed to do, get out there and win our game and that’s all we can do and we did,” Koepka said.
The Ryder Cup pits 24 of the world’s best golfers against each other and DeChambeau is the one almost all of the 40,000 spectators want to see.
DeChambeau, the golf version of a homerun king, is the big hitter who does ridiculous things and smashes golf balls.
He also has a prickly, quirky personality that has made him one of the most polarizing and intriguing figures in golf.
To a thunderous ovation, he stepped out of the tunnel onto the first tee and then gave the crowded stands what they wanted to see.
DeChambeau marched towards his ball, growled, clenched his teeth, then shot his tee shot into orbit, and when he reentered the atmosphere came down where it often does: deep in the rough.
On the second he missed the fairway again.
Then there are holes like the 603-yard par-five, a dogleg to the right that is guarded by bunkers and water on either side.
It’s a three-stroke hole, even for some of the best golfers, but DeChambeau takes a different approach that hits a 417-yard drive that leaves him a short wedge into the green and a 10-foot putt for the eagle.
“I knew if it was a little downwind I could take a unique line and luckily I could have that wind today,” said DeChambeau. “I said to myself, well, I have to aim for the green, so I did it.
“I just aimed at the green and bombed away.”
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Kohler, Wis. Editing by Sam Holmes)