UNEASY RYDER
Captains, players ramp up trash talk ahead of Cup
CHASKA, Minn. — The first ball of the 41st Ryder Cup will not be struck until Friday morning, but tweaks have been trickling in from both the U.S. and European sides for days. It figures to get juicier once the real competition begins.
First came Davis Love III’s curious assertion that his U.S. team “is the best golf team maybe ever assembled.”
In response to the U.S. captain’s bold assessment, European Ryder Cup veteran Lee Westwood gleefully tweeted, “No pressure there then lads.”
“Of course we’re going to have fun with that,’’ Rory McIlroy chimed in. “Of course, it gives us motivation if they think they’re the best U.S. team ever.”
Then came NBC analyst Johnny Miller, a former U.S. Ryder Cup stalwart, stating the “Euros have got, at least on paper, the worst team they’ve had in many years.”
Sergio Garcia on Tuesday said the comments by Love and Miller “are pretty much motivating factors’’ for the Euros despite the fact that they’ve won the last three Ryder Cups and 8 of the past 10.
“You know what they say, ‘Opinions are like … we all have one,’ ’’ Garcia said. “At the end of the day, you don’t win Ryder Cups with your mouth. You win them out there on the golf course. So that’s what we’ll see, which team is the best. But we know what we have and that’s the most important thing for us.’’
European captain Darren Clarke said he doesn’t “need’’ to use the comments as motivational tools because “the guys have all seen everything that’s been said.’’
“But in terms of [the Love comment], we have the Masters champion [Danny Willett], we have the Open champion [Henrik Stenson], we have the Olympic champion [Justin Rose], we have the FedEx champion [McIl- roy],’’ Clarke said. “I don’t really need to respond to that. I’ve got full confidence in our team.’’
Love on Tuesday did his best to diffuse any contentiousness from the back-and-forth that has taken place.
“Obviously, that comment and to the other extreme, the [Miller] comment about the European team, is not what this is all about,” Love said. “Darren and I have already talked about both of those things, and that’s just part of the Ryder Cup.’’
Love conceded his bold statement “raised some eyebrows around our team, too.”
“If you listen to the [radio] interview … a guy from Canada called in and said, ‘ I’m supporting the U.S. team. I just think they need a little bit more swagger when they go out and play.’ I said, ‘I agree with you, we’ve got to get these guys going.’
“Then [the interviewer] was asking me, ‘ What are you going to tell your team?’ I said I would tell my team they’re the best team ever assembled. Let’s go out and show off and play and have fun. That’s what [Alabama football coach] Nick Saban would tell his team when they’re getting ready to go play Ole Miss. He’s going to say, ‘You guys have worked hard, you’re the best team I’ve ever seen, let’s go crush these guys.’ ’’
Europe is seeking its fourth consecutive win, something it never has accomplished. But the Euros are trying to make history with six rookies — Willett, Andy Sullivan, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Chris Wood, Rafa Cabrera Bello and Thomas Pieters.
“I just think with all those rookies, [and] when you lose [Ian] Poulter, it’s like tearing your heart out,” Miller said. “There’s a bunch of guys you just don’t have that much confidence in. Even Westwood, I don’t know if he can make putts in Ryder Cup pressure. Chris Wood, who knows? Thomas Pieters has a good game for Hazeltine, but he might melt under Ryder Cup pressure.
“I think this is the year not only could the U.S. win, they could win by like five points.”
All of the chirping related to the U.S. team is music to the ears of the Europeans, who always fancy themselves as the underdog despite their dominance of this competition for the last two decades.
“I don’t think it’s hard for us to find motivation, because anywhere you look, whether it be the sea of red [for the U.S. team] you see on the golf course or the comments that are made in the media by the U.S. team or by the captain, that gives us so much motivation already,’’ McIlroy said. “Whenever we are going up against one of the greatest teams ever assembled, that’s motivation enough. If you look at worldwide wins this year, Europe [has] 12; America [has] 10. So our team is good. Our team is more than ready to handle the occasion, to handle what we need to do.’’