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Thomas & Spieth to represent US at Presidents Cup
US take on International team in Ryder-Cup style tournament
Tiger Woods is a US vice-captain
They pushed each other hard all year, now Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth want to team up take on the best of the International team in this week’s Presidents Cup.
Thomas, who won more than $10 million as winner of the season-long FedEx Cup ahead of Spieth Sunday, had little chance to go on a spending spree as he hot-footed it to New Jersey for the biennial Ryder Cup-style event.
But despite a formidable US lineup, including world No.1 Dustin Johnson and five-time major champion Phil Mickelson, Thomas wants to take on the best players outside of Europe alongside his best buddy Spieth.
“You never know what’s going to happen with the matches but if we could play together and go get some points for our team, then that would be great,” says Thomas, who won five tournaments this season including his first major title at the US PGA Championship, talking to CNN Sport.
READ: Presidents Cup: “Time for protest, and it probably isn’t during the Anthem’
‘Like the old days’
Spieth picked up three victories of his own this season, including his third major title at the Open, but he ended up just shy of his close friend in the race for the bumper FedEx Cup jackpot in Atlanta.
Now Spieth is looking forward to switching from an individual mindset to a group mentality at the Presidents Cup, side by side with Thomas.
“We get to have a lot of fun at a team event,” Spieth says. “It will be our first one together since the Junior Ryder Cup, which goes back a while. So it will be awesome. Hopefully we can play together in some matches just like the old days.”
‘Little intimidating’
Spieth and Thomas have known each other since they were 13 years old, but it is Spieth who has more experience in senior team competitions with two previous Presidents Cup appearances and two US Ryder Cup caps.
“It’s different for Jordan,” Thomas says. “He’s experienced this a couple of times now. This is my first one – especially at a place like Liberty National where I can only expect the crowds to be pretty out of control. I’m just glad to have them out of control on our side as opposed to the other way around.
“You know it could be a little intimidating and nerve wracking at first. I’m sure I’ll be nervous but them cheering us along and having a lot of other teammates that are really good and really confident, they’re going to kind of ease me if they need to.”
The Americans have won nine of the 11 editions of the Presidents Cup – they lost in 1998 and tied in 2003 – and victory for Steve Stricker’s men at the Liberty National Golf Club will be their seventh in a row.
On paper, they have a far stronger team than their international counterparts with Mickelson the lowest ranked player at 30th in the world. That is still higher than six members of Nick Price’s lineup.
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Stricker also boasts a wealth of experience among his non-playing staff with Tiger Woods, Davis Love III, Fred Couples and Jim Furyk working alongside him as vice-captains.
