Rookies will be key to Europe’s cup destiny
IF Darren Clarke was offered a 14-14 draw at Hazeltine next weekend, he would take it.
With a team containing six rookies against the might of USA, on a course set up to favour the home side, retaining the cup would be a successful outcome.
Your first job as a Ryder Cup captain is to bring the cup back home. I would certainly have settled for that result at Kiawah Island all those years ago!
Darren will say the right things about looking to win a fourth in a row for Europe, but I would regard 14-14 as a win.
The Europeans will be happy to be underdogs in public. But they won’t feel that in the team room.
They will regard themselves as equals and will call upon this fighting spirit that has passed on down the years.
The Americans are under pressure to deliver. They failed to finish it off in 2012 at Medinah and were heavily beaten at Gleneagles.
They have been more proactive this time with their task force. But there is a big responsibility on Davis Love III and his players to deliver.
Davis probably should have taken the team to Scotland, but it took two years for people to realise he was a good captain.
The captain’s job is effectively over once he has named the pairings for the Sunday singles and you can’t argue that Davis hadn’t done well to have his team 10-6 up at that stage.
The big challenge for Darren is blending in six rookies. At least two are going to have to play in every round of foursomes and fourballs.
But if Darren picks more, then that shows implicit faith. If you give them that confidence, they enjoy it more and start to hole putts.
There is an argument for playing your heavyweights all the time. But I’m a great believer that everyone should play at least once before the singles.
Looking at the European team, some pairings jump out at me.
Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose looks an obvious one after their strong play together at Gleneagles and it would be natural to pair Sergio Garcia with fellow Spaniard Rafa Cabrera-Bello.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Rory McIlroy was partnered with Danny Willett. Danny is the Masters Champion, and he’s a confident guy who would relish that pairing.
I expect Martin Kaymer to go out with Thomas Pieters and then Lee Westwood to be with Matthew Fitzpatrick.
That leaves Chris Wood and Andy Sullivan, the rookie English duo. But I don’t see why they can’t play together. Sometimes experience can be overrated.
For my first match in 1969, captain Eric Brown sent me out alongside fellow rookie Maurice Bembridge in the opening foursomes against Lee Trevino and Ken Still and we won 2&1.
My main tip for Darren is to keep a very open mind about pairings. They can appear from nowhere.
In 1995, Seve Ballesteros was in rotten form and finding a partner was difficult. You would never have had down David Gilford as a natural partner but he was inspired and virtually won their fourball on his own.
Similarly, I never really imagined putting Sam Torrance and Costantino Rocca together, but they ended up winning both foursomes by big margins.
It’s all part of the Ryder Cup’s appeal. We can sit here and try to predict things, but we are always surprised because these three days never fail to deliver.