Patrick Reed won LIV Dallas in dramatic fashion and now all the talk is surrounding whether he is deserving of a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
Reed is synonymous with the Ryder Cup, and obtained the ‘Captain America’ nickname after his impressive showing at the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.
Reed has been a part of three U.S. Ryder Cup teams and has a hugely impressive record of seven wins, three defeats and two halves.
And after winning at LIV Dallas, Reed stands a great chance of playing in the 2025 Ryder Cup, if he performs well at the Open Championship in July.
The man from Dallas, Texas, is as passionate as they come, and every golf fan remembers the display he put on against Rory McIlroy in the singles at Hazeltine nine years ago.
Keegan Bradley already has a really difficult decision to make regarding whether he picks himself or not.
Numerous high profile American players including the likes of Bryson DeChambeau have called for Bradley to be a part of the 2025 Ryder Cup team.
And now similar calls are beginning to be made about Reed with the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black just under three months away.
Keegan Bradley warned what’ll happen if he picks Patrick Reed for the Ryder Cup
Bradley has been given a strict warning about potentially picking Reed by The Golf Channel’s Eamon Lynch.
Lynch believes that the toxicity that the LIV golfer would bring to the team-room makes selecting him an absolute no-no.
He said, “Patrick Reed won the LIV event in Dallas, and it has immediately started this conversation about whether or not he should be on the Ryder Cup team, which as a European, I hope he is. DJ played well in Ryder Cup teams 10 years ago as well.
“If you go back to the Gleneagles 2014 Ryder Cup, that’s when the American team decided to prioritize unity over everything else. That really became emphasized after Patrick Reed’s contretemps in Paris with Jim Furyk after the 2018 Ryder Cup.
“So if you’re Keegan Bradley and you have a deep bench on the team, the idea of introducing toxicity into the team-room makes no sense whatsoever, and it doesn’t get much more toxic than team Reed in golf. The idea of introducing that toxicity into a team-room when you don’t need it just seems so outlandish, but I do hope as a European it happens.“
It’s actually a fair point by Lynch, but Reed’s Ryder Cup record cannot be completely forgotten about in all of this.
There has to be some form of balance, and Bradley will have to decide whether the pros outweigh the cons.
What happened between Patrick Reed and Jim Furyk at the 2018 Ryder Cup?
What Lynch is referring to when he said about ‘Reed’s contretemps in Paris with Jim Furyk’ was when the LIV star revealed all to the New York Times about his displeasure at the way Furyk decided to captain the team.
Reed claimed he was stunned when Furyk refused to pair him alongside Spieth, in spite of their impressive record when playing together.
The 34-year-old was also angry that Furyk left him out of two sessions, in spite of his terrific Ryder Cup record.
After Reed spilled the beans to the New York Times, Brooks Koepka claimed that the 2018 Masters champion texted everyone in the U.S. team to apologize.
Europe won the Ryder Cup that year by a score of 17.5-10.5.
Perhaps Reed had a point. Does Bradley really want an outspoken character like the LIV Golf star in his team this time round though?
Lynch might say that he would love it if Reed was part of Team USA, but there will be a lot of Europeans who would prefer it if he didn’t play!
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