Ryder Cup: the great energiser

GRAEME McDowell has experienced the highs of a Ryder Cup victory at Celtic Manor and the deep disappointment of a defeat on American soil but he believes European star power next week in Chicago can overcome any fervent home support at Medinah.

Images of McDowell being engulfed by European supporters on Celtic Manor’s 17th green after clinching victory over Hunter Mahan two years ago underlined the massive lift Colin Montgomerie’s team got from the home fans in Wales as Europe reclaimed the Ryder Cup it had lost amid similar scenes for the Americans at Valhalla.

Chicago, McDowell suspects, may be just a little different.

“There’s no doubt home advantage, the 13th man, it’s a big factor,” McDowell said. “You can really pull energy from the crowd when you need to in the middle of a match. But I expect us to have a huge amount of support in Chicago.

“The US will have the majority of the support but when I look at our team and I look at the US team, I look at 24 great players; I’m not sure there’s ever been 24 players this good assembled for a Ryder Cup, certainly 24 guys playing as well as they are right now. And I look at a lot of our pairings and I think a lot of our pairings are very popular here in the States, maybe even more popular than a couple of the US pairings are.

“Chicago’s a great sports town, a huge Irish and huge European population in those areas and I know they’re going to be fired up. They went for the SuperBowl and didn’t get it, they went for the Olympics and didn’t get it and the Ryder Cup’s the one they’ve got now and they’re 100 per cent behind it.

“It’s going to have a huge impact and we’ll have a share of support but it won’t affect us too much. Our guys are very used to playing here in the States. I look back to ‘99 and Brookline and I think that would be the last very hostile American crowd that Europe played against.

“Now, we’ve played so much here and the crowds are very used to us and I really don’t see it having a negative impact on our team.”

Plenty of that European glamour, of course, belong’s to McDowell’s fellow Ulster man Rory McIlroy, the world number one, newly-crowned PGA champion and four-time winner on the PGA Tour this season alone.

McIlroy’s ascendancy led this week to American veteran Jim Furyk suggesting the 23-year-old would be a marked man at Medinah, something McDowell, who partnered his compatriot three times at Celtic Manor did not dispute.

“It’s obviously a massive plus having a Rory McIlroy on your team,” the Portrush man said. “He’s the best player on the planet right now, hands down. He’s just had an incredible three months and I look at the Rory McIlroy playing on our team next week as opposed to the Rory McIlroy of two years ago and both are incredibly talented golfers but two years ago he was a rookie and I really (was in favour of) wrapping him in cotton wool come the weekend. I think this time around it’s a case of putting him in top gear and sending him out there. I’m hoping to play a few games with Rory but there’s 10 other guys on the team who would love to play with Rory, he such a great player that he’d be a fairly handy partner for anyone to have.

“He’s such a great player he’ll have the crosshairs on his back. He’s a big scalp now and guys will want to play him. Tiger always had that kind of aura with him and guys wanted to play him and win a point against him in the Ryder Cup, it would be a special thing.

So there’s no doubt Rory’s got that aura at this Ryder Cup and he’s got a lot of responsibility on his shoulders but for me he can handle that pressure and that step up. He’s stepped up to the plate in the last couple of months and I fully expect him to be on form next week.”

McDowell is also backing himself to regain the spark that garnered four top-12 finishes in this year’s majors but which deserted him during the FedEx Cup series, where he failed to make this weekend’s finale at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

“I wasn’t really firing on all cylinders in the FedEx play-offs, and really felt like I switched off very well after Kiawah Island. I took some rest after that and I wasn’t very inclined to switch back on again for the play-offs. I didn’t get up for them and that’s really disappointing for me.

“Of course I’d have loved to have been in the Tour Championship with a good chance to win and I’m disappointed I’m not there but part of me felt like a good rest this week and I feel fresher for next week.

“So here I am, just working on my game, practising, Pete (Cowan’s) coming in this weekend and I’ve got a couple of days with Pete. So my game’s in great shape but it was really just a mental thing for me, the FedEx. I really didn’t have that same drive, that same focus or motivation like I’ve had all summer.

“But certainly I’m 100 per cent focused on next week. There’s nothing that won’t stop me from being ready. It’s just natural energy, natural adrenalin and something a bit different to focus the brain.

“I think guys go into the Ryder Cup tired and find energy. I’m not saying I’ll be going there tired. I’ll be coming off two weeks off and I’ll be fit and ready and up for it. But even if a guy went in there not feeling 100 per cent, there’d just be that natural energy in the team room and come Friday morning there’s no such thing as fatigue.”