While it was Europe's day overall on Friday at the Ryder Cup, one of the standout performances of the opening matches came in the morning session from rookie American pair Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed in the fourballs.
Reed, 24, and Spieth, 21, the youngest American partnership in the tournament’s history, were a surprise pairing by United States captain Tom Watson, and they paid back his faith by comfortably defeating Ian Poulter and Stephen Gallacher 5 and 4.
Reed said the familiarity he and Spieth had for each other had helped them as they gave Poulter, one of Europe’s leading players, only his fourth defeat in Ryder Cup action since 2004.
“When Tom told us we were going out together, we were excited,” Reed said. “I’ve played a lot of golf with Jordan, not only professionally but amateur and junior career.
“I was very comfortable playing with him.”
The American duo never trailed and rode a red-hot run of five birdies in six holes around the turn helped by the confident putting of Reed, which silenced a partisan Gleneagles crowd.
“It was very, very quiet out there compared to what I think Patrick and I expected in the first round of a Ryder Cup over here, and that’s the goal,” Spieth said.
“Our team goal is just go out there and play and kind of listen to it [the quiet] like it’s just Sunday with your buddies.”
Reed and Spieth were rested for the foursomes yesterday as Europe fought back, but Reed hinted he believed Watson had erred by not sending them out again in the afternoon. “Whenever you feel like you’re playing really well – I felt like in alternate shot, him and I would have been great to go back out and take the momentum of what we just had done,” he said.
“But at the end of the day, Captain Watson, he picks pairings for a reason.”
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