Straight away, the gloves are off. And, if there is a belief that all is fair in love and war, there's almost a touch of destiny that Rory McIlroy – in an exciting partnership with Sergio Garcia, a man who twice embarked on a futile chase of the Northern Irish man as he lifted Major trophies and a WGC title this summer gone – should come face-to-face with Phil Mickelson, alongside Keegan Bradley, in the opening session of fourballs over the PGA Centenary course.
In this Ryder Cup, there is no place to hide. That's as it should be. And as the fourballs names were divulged one by one by USA captain Tom Watson and Europe's Paul McGinley, the alignment of stars ensured that the final match of the session – one with a little, friendly edge – would get the juices flowing and pump up the volume.
Statement of intent
Not that Mickelson’s jibe about litigation in the European team was required as any incentive. That’s history already, sorted with a couple of verbal jabs back from McIlroy at the Gala dinner on Wednesday. But McGinley’s decision to partner McIlroy and Garcia together – the world number one and the world number three – provided a statement of intent.
"It's going to be a difficult match against what we perceive as the strongest team Europe has . . . we have our work cut out," admitted Mickelson.
And, having talked of working to a template of previous captains, McGinley – proving to be very much his own man – immediately put his own mark on proceedings by nominating fourballs pairings that are brand spanking new: none of them have ever played together, in any format, in the Ryder Cup. Brave? Bold? For sure, but also done in the belief that it will reap dividends for his team.
Heat of battle
As McGinley observed of using four first-time partnerships in the heat of battle, “template doesn’t necessarily mean (doing) the same . . . . you move forward. Things evolve and move on. The template doesn’t mean pairings have to be the exact same pairings.”
In effect, in this Ryder Cup where Europe enter as hot favourites and with four of the top-six ranked players in the world on their team, McGinley has sought to hit the ground running: he has paired McIlroy and Garcia, one and two in the world rankings, together; and he has also paired Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose, five and six in the rankings. For sure, he is shooting from the hip.
Although both sides have three rookies in their teams, McGinley has chosen to use just one – Stephen Gallacher – in the opening session. In contrast, Watson has chosen to throw all three – Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed and Jimmy Walker – straight into the fray. And even made a bolder move to pair two of them, Spieth and Reed, together.
Was McGinley surprised at Watson’s strategy? “No, Tom is a strong captain with a very strong golfing CV behind him . . . . that might be a genius move by Tom, and it might not. My ideas might backfire as well too. But that’s what you do as captain. You make your decision, set out your stall, watch what happens and you adapt to what happens.”
One of those decisions was to omit Graeme McDowell from the opening session, although the Ulster man is expected to feature – possibly alongside Victor Dubuisson – in the afternoon foursomes.
“Graeme is a big player, playing very well with a big heart . . . there will be a time and place for Graeme to play that big role,” said McGinley.
The McIlroy-Garcia partnership may be new, but it has been flagged with a friendship that has blossomed in the heat of their own on-course battles. At Hoylake and again in the Bridgestone Invitational, McIlroy proved to be Garcia’s usurper. And, yet, in defeat, Garcia’s respect for McIlroy grew stronger and stronger and their evolving friendship was noted by McGinley.
“They are a very strong pairing, never been beaten before together – we’re looking forward to handing them their first defeat . . . it’ll be a tough match, they’re both great competitors. We know how pumped up Keegan gets for the Ryder Cup from the last time,” said McIlroy of taking on Mickelson and Bradley.
If there is a sense that this European team is the strongest in the Ryder Cup’s history, it should be noted that, in Celtic Manor four years ago, the USA had four of the top-five ranked players in their midst. We know what happened there.
Ticked boxes
And the transformation in the Ryder Cup is that history is now on Europe’s side, at least in recent times. Those days of yore when the Americans came over every four years to go through the motions of retaining the trophy are long gone. Indeed, the United States hasn’t won the Ryder Cup on European soil since triumphing at The Belfry in 1993. It’s a long time.
McGinley has seemingly ticked all the right boxes with his captaincy this past year or more and, more so, this week. Now, though, it is out of his hands – others must hit the shots and hole the putts: “You can’t get every decision right. I’m prepared for that but, provided I get more decisions right than wrong, I’ll be happy.”
It would seem he has the men to complete the job.
