FIGHTING TALK AS EUROPE ARE RILED BY BRAGGING USA
Garcia fires a warning to arrogant Love
YOu don’t win ryder Cups with your mouth. With those choice words, Sergio Garcia articulated exactly what the Europeans think of some prime examples of american arrogance over the past few days.
‘We’ve got maybe the greatest uS team ever assembled,’ crowed the home captain Davis Love.
‘Europe has got their worst team for many years,’ spouted america’s leading analyst, the former Open champion Johnny miller.
‘Yes, we talk about it among ourselves and sure they are motivating factors,’ said Garcia, when Sportsmail put the point to the feisty Spaniard.
‘Johnny expresses a lot of opinions and not all of them are right, so we’ll see. But you know what people say about opinions, that everyone has one. We know what we have and that’s the most important thing for us. at the end of the day, you don’t win ryder Cups with your mouth. You win them on the golf course. So we’ll see in a few days which team is the best.’
after a day of reflection to mark the death of arnold Palmer, the great man himself would surely have approved of Garcia’s spicy thoughts and the return of a necessary edge to these ryder Cup proceedings.
Sure, we want the matches played in the right spirit, particularly after Palmer’s passing, but a little needle is an essential part of the mix.
Garcia’s views were echoed by his foursomes playing partner, rory mcIlroy.
asked if it was hard for Europe to have a chip on its shoulder when it has won eight of the last 10 ryder Cups, the Northern Irishman responded: ‘I don’t think it’s hard for us to find motivation because everywhere you look, whether it be the sea of red on the course or the comments made in the media or by the captain, that gives us so much motivation already. ‘Whenever we’re going up against one of the greatest teams ever assembled, that’s motivation enough. ‘I mean, just to say how good a victory this would be if we go out and beat these guys on their home soil when they’re that strong. ‘If you look at worldwide wins this year, our team has 12 and the americans have nine. So our team is good and more than ready to handle the occasion. The big thing for us is playing away from home, so it’s a matter of battling that 13th man and keeping the crowd as quiet as possible.’
On the first day of practice, the crowd MCILROY referred to braved a biting minneapolis wind to give the american players a rousing welcome. The Europeans went off first and there were no great revelations in the pairings chosen by captain Darren Clarke.
Garcia and MCILROY went out with the rookies andy Sullivan — who will surely partner the latter at some point — and Chris Wood. Young Englishman matt Fitzpatrick teamed up with Justin rose and henrik Stenson, plus another rookie in Thomas Pieters.
Lee Westwood and Danny Willett got in some practice for Friday morning’s foursomes alongside martin Kaymer and rafa Cabrera-Bello.
‘There was no particular reason for who went with whom, because today the guys were just getting out to see the golf course,’ insisted Clarke.
On Tuesday of ryder Cup week, it has become a tradition among the Europeans to invite a famous sporting figure into the team room to give a motivational speech.
Last time, of course, it was Sir alex Ferguson, while, last night, rugby great Paul O’Connell was invited by the captain to say a few words.
‘he has legendary status both at home and in terms of leading the Lions, who obviously always play away from home. With my rugby background as well, it was something that resonated with me,’ explained Clarke. ‘From everybody I’ve spoken to who has heard Paul address teams, he is seriously inspirational.’
as for the americans, Love is adopting the approach of the last winning uS captain Paul azinger and sending his players out in pods of four. The idea is that their partners will only come from players within their own pod.
accordingly, pod one featured Jordan Spieth with Dustin Johnson and Patrick reed, the two players with whom he will team up, plus matt Kuchar.
Phil mickelson was with Zach Johnson, while Jimmy Walker and rickie Fowler are set to resume their partnership from last time at Gleneagles.
The third pod was Brandt Snedeker, Brooks Koepka, JB holmes and last man in, ryan moore.
In his press conference, Love laughed off his comments about the finest team ever assembled, claiming he just said it to give his players a little more swagger.
‘We’ve got to get these boys going,’ he said, seemingly unaware that he might just have got the Europeans going instead.