JORDAN SPIETH SAYS wrestling the Ryder Cup off Europe will take precedence over retaining his FedExCup title this weekend.
Spieth will tee off in the PGA Tour season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake on Thursday ranked seventh, knowing his destiny is out of his hands as he eyes back-to-back FedExCup triumphs.
The world number four ended a magnificent 2015 in style by winning the Tour Championship in Atlanta by four shots in a huge payday, but 12 months on he considers winning the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine to be a priority after the agony of losing at Gleneagles on his United States debut two years ago.
“I don’t have a Ryder Cup,” Spieth said. “I think I will have a Ryder Cup at some point. I think that will be easier to win, easier to have a Ryder Cup than a FedExCup going forward, given you may not play your best and you’ve got team-mates around you that play their best and win it.
“But if you’re saying 2016, right now I’ve got a choice – Ryder Cup. You want something that you don’t have. That’s a trophy that I’ve watched the other side of [at Gleneagles in 2014] and it hurt. It was tough at the closing ceremony.
“We had a good time that evening but when we boarded the plane back home, it was an empty feeling. We don’t want that again.
“We remember that, those of us that were there, and the guys that were there in Medinah in 2012. We want that celebration. We want that champagne falling off the balcony.
“I’m pretty confident about how we’re going to go about our business. I think we’ve got a fantastic team this year, one of the best teams I can remember looking back at, and I love being a part of that.”
