U.S. Open rivals Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson partner up at Presidents Cup
INCHEON CITY, Korea – In June, world No. 1 Jordan Spieth won the U.S. Open by one shot as he watched Dustin Johnson three-putt the 72nd hole.
On Thursday, they will be side by side in the opening session of the Presidents Cup at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea.
Spieth and Johnson will be in the anchor match against Danny Lee and Marc Leishman as the 11th edition of the Presidents Cup begins with foursomes (alternate shot) play.
"Jordan and Dustin, they have been wanting this for a while, wanting this pairing. And what Jordan wants, Jordan gets right now," U.S. captain Jay Haas said with a smile.
Spieth, the reigning PGA Tour player of the year who won the first two majors and five Tour titles overall this season, said Haas asked all the players for their input and he obliged. Spieth and Patrick Reed were 2-0-1 in the Ryder Cup last year while Johnson and Matt Kuchar won both their matches in the 2012 Ryder Cup. But Reed is playing with Kuchar.
“Jay reached out to pretty much everybody on the team and asked what you're thinking, and there's a few players that we talked about that would be really good options in alternate-shot, as well as in best-ball,” Spieth said “And we both felt like we'd be a good alternate-shot team. We felt like it sets up really nicely on this golf course specifically for odds and evens. We wanted to try it."
As for why he wanted to be paired for Johnson, Spieth was succinct.
“Why DJ? Because he’s DJ," he said. "He's really good. He can bust it down the par-5s and then I can kind of control some shots into those greens.”
In the opening match, Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes face Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama, who were 1-2-1 as a team in the 2013 Cup. In the second match, Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed face Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace. Match 3 has Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker, who did not lose in four matches as a team in the 2014 Ryder Cup, against Anirban Lahiri and Thongchai Jaidee. Match 4 has Phil Mickelson and reigning British Open champion Zach Johnson facing fellow Aussies Steven Bowditch and world No. 2 Jason Day, the reigning PGA champion.
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The U.S., which is 8-1-1 in the Presidents Cup, have not lost a session in the team matches since 2007.
"One of the hardest parts is trying to decide who plays with who," Haas said "Most everybody is easygoing and has said, it doesn't matter to me, I just want to win. … But at the same time, they have probably two or three guys that they would prefer. I've been looking at these pairings now for the last couple weeks, and trying to come up with what I think is the best situation for everybody to succeed, and we've got some great input here in the last few days.
"You can have great plans and things change. But the guys are ready; the guys are ready for that change if it happens. You get a hot hand in these things, and you ride it out. If you don't, then you make some changes."
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With the reduction of matches from 34 to 30, two players on each squad will sit each of the first two days. On Thursday, Chris Kirk and Bill Haas will sit for the Americans while Charl Schwartzel, who is battling a cold, and Sangmoon Bae will sit.
"The guys that are out there, they are ready to go, been raring to go for a couple days now," Haas said. "We're happy with our lineup, and the guys know they have to play well to win a match. Nothing is going to be given to them, and they understand that. They know how golf is."
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