In the phoney war of words ahead of the real Ryder Cup battle this week, Rory McIlroy last night insisted that Europe’s golfers have all the motivation they need as they aim for an unprecedented fourth straight victory against the USA.
The dominant Europeans have won seven of the last nine meetings between the two sides while Team USA, who adopted a root-and-branch investigative process by forming a Task Force in the wake of a crushing defeat at Gleneagles in 2014, are pinning their hopes on this new approach as they seek a first win since 2008.
With mind games building, Davis Love III, the US skipper, upped the ante on the psychological front last week when he suggested that the Americans had “the best golf team maybe ever assembled”.
In contrast, Johnny Miller, the double major champion who is now a TV analyst, fanned those flames by declaring that Darren Clarke’s European team, which features six newcomers, was, on paper at least, “the worst team they’ve had in years.”
In the fevered environment of high-profile team tussles, these are exactly the kind of phrases that tend to get printed out on paper and plastered up on the changing room wall so players can roar their disapproval at them and, in time honoured tradition, ram the words down the throats of the opposition.
The talking, of course, will stop on Friday when the opening sessions get underway but McIlroy admits the spoutings from the American camp and beyond have only added to the feeling of determination in the European squad. The patriotic surroundings of Hazeltine, all decked out in red and white to rouse the flag-waving masses, has only added to the sense of resolve.
“Anywhere you look, whether it be the sea of red you see on the golf course or the comments made in the media by the US team or the captain, then that gives us so much motivation,” said McIlroy. “It (motivation) is not hard to find.”
Stirring the pot a little, McIlroy added: “Whenever you are going up against one of the greatest teams ever assembled, that’s enough to get you going. So you say, how good a victory would this be if we go out and beat these guys on their home soil? Our team is good and it’s more than ready to handle the occasion and handle what we need to do.”
Clarke, the European captain, played down the hype and a quick recap of his line-up made something of a mockery of the aforementioned Miller’s claim of weakness.
He said: “We have the Masters champion, the Open champion, the Olympic champion and the FedEx champion. I have full confidence in our team.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here