ROBBIE GREENFIELD

t’s fair to say the Americans are taking this particular Ryder Cup quite seriously. Vice captain Tiger Woods has allegedly been losing sleep over possible pairings and Jordan Spieth has said that winning the Ryder Cup is far more important than defending his FedEx Cup title as the hype train to Hazeltine gathers more momentum.

And who can blame them? For Team USA and its celebrated ‘ Task Force’, this Ryder Cup is no laughing matter. A record of eight defeats in the last 10 outings (when they have often gone in with a significantly better side on paper) has to rank as one of the most unenviable in all of modern sport.

The U.S. are doing everything they possibly can to ensure victory at Hazeltine. They’re plotting, they’re planning, they’re conference calling, and no doubt they are tailoring the course to the exact specifications that will most suit their players. Even a gathering at Jack Nicklaus’s house has formed part of this new, winning attitude to the Ryder Cup.

What they cannot buy for love nor money is the easy confidence held by the Europeans that they know exactly what it takes to win this event and whatever off-course intangibles dictate the outcome, well, the Europeans just

and the Americans don’t. Paradoxically, the more seriously the American team takes the Ryder Cup, the more likely they are to lose. What they need is faith in an environment that will allow them to play their best golf. It’s like a football match between two sides where one manager is still trying to work out his best formation and style of play, while the other has been drilling the same philosophy for decades.

I was at Gleneagles two years ago, and that final U.S. press conference was cringeworthy stuff. How could there have been such a disconnect between Tom Watson and his most senior player, Phil Mickelson, to the point where it sparked open rebellion? Juxtaposed with Paul McGinley’s relationship with his tight-knit team, it was impossible to go along with the idea still propagated by many experts that Europe just ‘hole more putts’.

Amusing as it was for us Team Europe fans, the U.S. needed that Task Force. Their captain may look familiar, but not much else about the U.S. approach will be. And crucially, they’ve been presented with a gilt-edged chance to win this 2016 dust-up against a weak-looking European side who, Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson aside, are struggling for form.

It’s fantastic for the likes of Danny Willett, Andy Sullivan, Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Matt Fitzpatrick and Chris Wood, but that’s a lot of rookies for Darren Clarke to manage. Meanwhile, when you consider that at the time of writing, the likes of Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson weren’t even in the U.S. team, the strength in depth clearly belongs to the Americans.

Will that even matter? This time, with home advantage, I think it has to.