Best of friends, best of rivals is the mentality that has driven American golfing success over the past two seasons and there is little sign of that changing on the basis of the messages delivered at Carnoustie yesterday.

Such is the camaraderie that Tiger Woods, the 14-time major champion whose career so spectacularly went off the rails a decade ago, hinted at some envy of the way his compatriots have been able to support one another in their early days on tour in the way that current world number two Justin Thomas outlined.

“It is a very unique group of us, I guess you could say,” he said. “Obviously, we want to beat each other’s brains in. I never want to lose to any of my friends, especially my best friends. As weird as it is, sometimes it’s harder losing to your closest friends than it is someone you don’t even know, whether it’s bragging rights or whatever it is, but it is a weird feeling.

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“Then again, like last year when I didn’t play well and missed the cut, I mean, I was pulling for Jordan (Spieth) to win. You want to see your friend win or one of your friends win if you can’t. When you get in a situation like that it differs, but in terms of pulling for them this week, I mean, I’m not worried about anybody else other than myself and what, myself and everyone that I’m working with can do so that we’re in the best shape possible to get the tournament started.”

The most recent example of how that manifests itself was provided at Shinnecock Hills last month when world number one Dustin Johnson, who has found an array of demoralising ways to miss out on winning more Majors than his solitary US Open success two years ago, went head-to-head with closest golfing pal Brooks Koepka in the final round and was edged out. There was noticeably little chat between the two, who started that final round tied for the lead with Tony Finau and Daniel Berger, but Johnson said the rivalry was set aside once the day was won and lost.

“We train a lot together, and so we push each other in the gym and play a lot of golf together. We definitely push each other to get better and to do the right things, we’re competitive in everything we do,” he noted “I talked to him when we were done for a little bit and then I think I talked to him on Monday… I mean, we’re still buddies. I was happy for him. If it wasn’t going to be me, I was glad he won.”

Whereas the personal tension was obvious between Woods and Phil Mickelson, his closest American rival when he was at his peak, it seems that the next generation have learned valuable lessons from their European counterparts as this season’s US Masters champion Patrick Reed pointed out when asked to place the recent run of American Major successes in the context of the forthcoming Ryder Cup in France.

“If we have all 12 guys in unison and focusing really hard and grinding and very determined and working as one unit, they’re going to be hard to beat no matter what, whether it’s our team or it’s their team,” he said.

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“I felt like we finally have kind of grasped that family unit that the Europeans have had since who knows how long. Every time I’m over here playing on both tours, the guys are always going out and eating together., they’re always hanging out with each other during the tournament week. You don’t see that as much in the States because everyone’s travelling with their families and stuff. We finally clicked and figured out the right kind of mould for 2016 and moving forward. So, if we can continue that run on winning the big tournaments and stuff and keeping them in the States, it’s going to help our psyche and it’s also going to hopefully get in the heads of the Europeans a little bit that, hey, we’re all playing pretty well and we’re coming.”