Golf: Dustin Johnson fell out with Brooks Koepka on plane before the Ryder Cup in row over fiancee - reports

Jena Sims the partner of Brooks Koepka and Paulina Gretzky, the partner of Dustin Johnson. Photo / AP

The bitter fallout within the United States Ryder Cup team has continued with claims that Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, who had a bust-up after the US defeat, had fallen out even before the Ryder Cup started.

Reports in Golf Digest and French sports newspaper L'Equipe suggest that the pair had an argument over Johnson's fiancee, Paulina Gretzky, on the plane to Paris.

Koepka on Wednesday denied any altercations had taken place, insisting he and Johnson were still 'best friends', had never raised voices at each other in four years of friendship and were 'sleeping' on the plane to Paris so could not have been fighting.

Yet multiple reports have said Johnson and Koepka almost came to blows during a heated argument in the aftermath of the defeat at Le Golf National. The two players had to be separated following a flare-up inside the Europe team room, where they had joined the celebrating hosts for a beer on Sunday night.

A witness said Koepka exploded with anger and threatened to flatten his friend. They had to be dragged apart to opposite corners of the room while tensions cooled.

Gretzky, with whom Johnson has two children, was believed to be close by when the argument erupted, while an eyewitness said she was 'clearly shocked and upset by the nastiness, which was very threatening'.

And it has now been claimed that Gretzky is at the centre of their falling out. She fuelled talk of marital strife by recently deleting all pictures of Johnson from her Instagram account, while reports claimed he had struck up a close relationship with socialite Yassie Safai.

It is claimed that Koepka had been comforting Gretzky and the row with Johnson on the plane from Atlanta was because of this.

L'Equipe report an anonymous source as claiming that the team atmosphere after the row on the plane was 'horrible'.

Golf Digest add that Koepka's girlfriend, Jena Sims, was 'also involved' in the post-tournament scuffle.

Johnson and Koepka had been close friends on and off the course, working out at the same Florida gym, but their 'Bash Brothers' nickname proved ironically appropriate.

Johnson and Koepka played together in the Saturday afternoon foursomes, losing to Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, one of many American defeats in their overall 17½-10½ loss.

Despite the multiple reports of the bust-ups both on the plane and in Paris, Koepka denied any altercations had taken place.

Speaking at St Andrews ahead of this week's Dunhill Links Championship, Koepka said: "This Dustin thing I don't get.

"There was no fight, no argument. He is one of my best friends. We talked on the phone on Monday and yesterday so tell me how we fought, I don't know.

"People like to make a story and run with it and it is not the first time a story has come out that is not true.

"It's actually quite funny to us as we are really good friends. There was no argument, no fight, but I'm curious who would win in a fight. It would be interesting.

"We've never fought, that's not our relationship. We're two even-keeled guys and I can't even remember raising my voice to him or him to me in our four years of friendship. That's not who we are.

"We're pretty laid back and it's just you guys trying to make something that's not there. We supposed to have fought on the plane on the way over too when we were sleeping, it's just awful."

Patrick Reed gave captain Jim Furyk a public flogging for splitting up his successful partnership with Jordan Spieth during the heavy defeat by Europe in Paris, saying he had been 'blindsided' by the decision.

The Masters champion reserved even colder criticism for Spieth by saying "the issue's obviously with Jordan not wanting to play with me," and adding: "I don't care if I like the person I'm paired with or if the person likes me as long as it works and it sets up the team for success."

But the New York Post has reported an anonymous source within the US team as saying of Reed: "He is so full of s***. Blindsided, my ass. He begged to play with Tiger."

Reed's blast at Furyk also centred on the decision to only play him in the fourballs, meaning he sat out two foursomes sessions. "For somebody as successful in the Ryder Cup as I am, I don't think it's smart to sit me twice," said Reed, who lost both fourballs matches alongside Woods before beating Tyrrell Hatton in the singles.

But again the source within the US team room dismissed Reed's remarks with clear contempt.

"He would have shot 83 on his own ball Saturday," said the source. "He totally screwed Tiger. He has no clue how to play team golf.

"I saw first-hand how bad of a team player he was. Eleven players understood the concept of team golf and only one didn't. Unfortunately, that one proved to be too costly for the team to overcome."

Furyk's call to break up a partnership that had yielded four wins from seven matches in previous Ryder Cups was partly vindicated by Spieth's successful partnership with Justin Thomas, with the good friends winning three out of their four matches together.

The source added: "I feel so bad for Jim, because he was an unreal captain. He would have run through a wall for all 12 of the guys. Unfortunately, there were only 11 players that would have returned the favour."