Bjorn gambles on rookies hitting the ground running
Europe captain says his players are ‘itching to go’ Fleetwood hopes to have advantage over Woods
In the build-up, Thomas Bjorn did not sound like a Ryder Cup captain who was willing to risk a gamble in the first skirmishes as he spoke darkly of the whitewash 4-0 “nightmare” which befell Europe two years ago. Yet when it came to the roll of the dice, the Dane just could not resist pinning his faith in the rookies and sending one out in each of the fourballs here this morning, armed with the message “seize the chance to become legends”.
This will be the first time this century that Europe have gone into the opening session with four debutants. Granted, the likes of Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood are first-timers surely only in name, but, even so, with everything that is on the line here, with the mission to stop the United States winning their first away match in 25 years, this is a bold move.
Particularly as Fleetwood, in the company of Francesco Molinari, has to face up to the resurgent Tiger Woods, as well as Patrick Reed.
Bjorn has split up the tried-andtrusted partnership of Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, and benched two of his other three captain’s picks in Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter. Tyrrell Hatton, who plays with Paul Casey, and Thorbjorn Olesen, who partners Rory Mcilroy, have so many expectations to live up to.
But Bjorn was adamant this was the correct path. “There are the obvious guys out there, in the sense that they are players you would all expect to see, and then there’s a new guy in every group,” he said.
“They have been just itching to go, especially Thorbjorn, Jon and Tyrrell. I think Tommy is a different guy, in the way that he’s won [the 2017 France Open] around here, and he’s been real quality for the last couple of years.”
Then came Bjorn’s rallying call to his young charges. “Players stand up and they are counted for what they do in the greatest events in the world. But legends are made in this event,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to go out there and be the best that you can be on a grand stage.”
There must be something about the Paris air, and indeed, the glorious sunshine which graced Le Golf National on the final day of practice, which encouraged a spirit of Gallic flair in selection. Because Jim Furyk also raised eyebrows by naming his own left-field pairings.
Brooks Koepka, the three-time major champion, was expected to be with hombre Dustin Johnson, but instead goes out with rookie Tony Finau in the first match against Rose and Rahm, while Johnson, the world No1, is with Rickie Fowler against Mcilroy and Olesen.
Perhaps most controversially, Furyk axed the renowned Jordan Spieth and Reed pairing to allow the former to play with best friend Justin Thomas. Spieth and Thomas play Casey and Hatton, and that is a huge ask for the Europeans.
But if most pressure seems to be
‘Players stand up and they are counted for what they do in the greatest events in the world’
on Hatton and Olesen, then the most eyeballs by far will be on Fleetwood. There is no such thing as a quiet start to a Ryder Cup, but by the time Woods marches on to the first tee in the last match of the morning, the din might just rattle the Eiffel Tower.
It is true that Woods’s first win in five years at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sunday was marked by its control, but he has barely played two rounds at Le Golf National and Fleetwood has tasted success here.
The 27-year-old is quite certain that will be an advantage; not just for him but the Europe team. After all, the home side have as a collective played 233 competitive rounds at this France Open course, and the Americans just eight.
“The amount of times our team have played, it has to work in our favour, it really does,” Fleetwood said. “It’s hard to say that when you are talking about the best golfers in the world, but if there is something that will flip it, I think the course is definitely something we’ve got going strongly for us.
“The set-up is different this year too, and I think it’s going to help us quite a bit. It’s tighter and the rough gets worse and worse the further wide you hit it – unlike Hazeltine two years ago.”
It is understood that Bjorn intends to field all of his team today, with Poulter pencilled in with Mcilroy for the afternoon foursomes, Garcia going out with Alex Noren, Stenson reuniting with Rose and the Fleetwood-molinari duo remaining intact. All of this could change, of course.
Phil Mickelson, the 48-year-old who is setting a record with his 12th appearance, has been left out of the opening session for the first time since his US debut 23 years ago but the left-hander is apparently due to tackle the foursomes with Bryson Dechambeau.
That seems an odd partnership as well, but that appears to the nature of this match as the captains take the advice of the statisticians. The Ryder Cup has just become yet more intriguing.