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RORY McILROY has told the fractured United States team they are trying too hard to forge the unity Europe are able to call upon at Ryder Cups.
Three successive defeats prompted the setting up of an American task force into the failures, the upshot of which has seen a new motto – ‘12strong’ – a group dinner at Jack Nicklaus’s house, an outing to Gillette Stadium in Boston and a visit to Minneapolis last week before a speech from Michael Phelps at a meal last night.
It represents time spent together and a common mission statement for a United States team used to doing their own individual thing on the PGA Tour, but McIlroy is sceptical whether it will provide the glue captain Davis Love yearns for.
“If Europe were in the same position in terms of what America have gone through over the past few Ryder Cups, we would be probably doing the same and searching for answers a little bit and trying to change it up,” he said.
“We both want it so badly but there comes a point where you maybe try a little too hard. As much as we talk about our blueprint in Europe, it’s not rocket science. We’re not thinking about it too much.
“The culture of the European Tour is just a little bit different in terms of guys socialising a little bit more with each other.
“I know the American team have started to do that for this reason – you’ve got Jack inviting them over to his house for dinner and trying to bond the team together, which is a great thing for them. But we’ve never really needed to do that. That’s always just been a natural fit for us.
“Sometimes you can ‘overteam’ it a little bit and try too hard instead of it just happening naturally.”
There is an image on the wall of the European team room at IN HAZELTINE Hazeltine which depicts the interlocking basalt rocks of the Giant’s Causeway on the Antrim coast.
It is intended to visualise Europe’s unbreakable bond that was verbalised by the team’s guest speaker, former Lions captain Paul O’Connell, last night. ‘Shoulder to shoulder’ is the mantra of Darren Clarke’s team this week. The group element to a Ryder Cup is particularly fascinating given how rarely the individuals involved link up. The Americans play together more often thanks to the Presidents Cup, but that has made no difference to the perceived gap in cohesion. “I look at the European team and I couldn’t tell you a guy that I would not be comfortable or happy playing with. I think that kind of says it all,” said Sergio Garcia. Love has attempted to puff up the fragile confidence of his team TIGER WOODS is finding it hard to come to terms with his non-playing role in the United States team, judging by the embarrassing incident at the official team photo yesterday.
The assistant captain, who has played in seven cups,