Captain Jim Furyk out to cure American travel sickness

Five times Jim Furyk crossed the Atlantic to fly the Stars and Stripes on European soil and five times he returned home on the losing Ryder Cup side.

Now as the United States captain he is trying to break a 25-year streak of American defeats on this side of the pond, but Furyk is not prepared to sugar-coat just how difficult it will be to emulate the success of Tom Watson’s 1993 victory at the Belfry.

Furyk, 48, tasted defeat from his 1997 debut at Valderrama, the Belfry in 2002, the K Club in 06, Celtic Manor four years later, and on his final appearance as a player at Gleneagles in 2014.

He knows all about the challenges of trying to win a Ryder Cup on the road.

I’ll praise both the European Tour and the way they choose golf courses, venues where they have European Tour events,” Furyk said yesterday. “I’ll praise their teams for how they have played and how organised they have been as a unit.

“You know, we’re coming into a golf course that they know a lot better than we do that will be set up in a fashion that they think suits their game. Those are obstacles we have to overcome.

“Their crowd is phenomenal. They make a lot of noise. When we walk into that first tee and they announce both teams, they are going to say, ‘And from the United States,’ announce two guys, and there’s going to be a nice applause. And when they announce the two folks from Europe, there’s going to be a giant roar and those players are going to feel that presence, and you’re going to hear those roars around the golf course.

“When you’re a player, you know exactly; a putt goes in and you hear a roar, you know. Every one of us knows whether it’s from the US or whether it’s from Europe, right, and so their crowd plays into a big part of that, as well.

We know that. We respect that. There’s definitely some obstacles to overcome, but you know, that group out there is feisty and confident, and right now they are preparing. They are trying to do the best they can to brace themselves and get ready for the battle.

European big gun Rory McIlroy tasted Ryder Cup defeat for the first time in four appearances when he was part of a 17-11 defeat to the Americans at a raucous Hazeltine National in 2016 and the Irishman understands the difficulties of playing this event away from home.

“It is surprising, 25 years is a pretty long time. I guess that’s 12 Ryder Cups,” McIlroy said.

“It is, it’s tough. I think playing on the road is increasingly becoming more difficult with how partisan the crowds are and how the crowds get behind their teams, and that’s all a part of it. It’s the same thing in any other sport. You have road games that are very difficult.

“Thinking back to Medinah (in Chicago) in 2012, we were 10-6 down. It was a long shot that we were going to win that, and we ended up doing that, which was very special, but that could have started a run of home victories for each team.

“Yeah, it is tough, and the adjustments, I think not having that week in between to recover. I think I counted something like 17 of the 24 players came straight from the Tour Championship (in Atlanta) last week.

“So getting in on Monday, and obviously we have the extra day; we’re not starting until Friday, but the journey over and then a little bit of jet-lag built in, all that sort of stuff; you need to do the right things, yesterday, today, tomorrow, to be able to play on Friday. I think that has a big part to do with it.

And then we do have a little more control of the golf course. The way Hazeltine was set up is not the way this is set up, which is not the way Medinah was set up. There is certain differences that you can try to do that play into the home team’s advantage, I guess.

If McIlroy was remaining diplomatic on the issue one of his fellow Europeans was less tactful when asked if he was surprised it has been so long since the Americans had won over here.

“No. I mean, I think it just shows how well we’ve played,” Sergio Garcia replied. “It’s as simple as that. Am I surprised? No, because that’s what we try to do. We try to win it.

“You know, they are probably surprised, but that’s our goal. So we are not, and we are hoping to make it even longer.”