Ryder Cup build up: Who’ll blow a gasket in Paris passion play?

The stage is set for another passion-fuelled rollercoaster ride when the Ryder Cup tees off at Le Golf National tomorrow morning, just the way the organisers like it.

Nothing puts bums on seats and draws television viewers to their armchairs like the tension, drama, and raw emotion this biennial collision generates when Europe goes toe to toe with the United States for golfing glory.

And there is not a tournament like it to stir the souls of those elite golfers who get to play in it.

That much will not have been lost on anyone who witnessed the opening Sunday singles match at Hazeltine National in 2016 when American Patrick Reed and Irishman Rory McIlroy generated an electric atmosphere in front of a raucous Stars and Stripes-tinged audience in Minnesota with an almighty ding-dong of a battle.

The adrenaline levels were off the charts as the pair slugged it out over the front nine with an equally astonishing standard of golf, McIlroy sinking five birdies in the first eight holes to Reed’s five as one golfer matched the other’s latest thrilling shot to ratchet up the tension another notch.

Both men got sucked into the drama, both interacting with the overwhelmingly American home crowd, Reed whipping them into a frenzy, McIlroy taunting them with a “shh” gesture here or an “I can’t hear you” motion there.

In the end, something had to give and it was McIlroy who cracked, as he revealed yesterday ahead of the 2018 matches.

By the ninth hole, which both men bogeyed, the four-time major champion was spent and would lose to Reed 1-up.

It was an important lesson that McIlroy hopes will stand to him and potentially hot-headed rookies including Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton as they prepare to help Europe win back the trophy that was lost two years ago.

As to playing so well while being so pumped up at Hazeltine, McIlroy admitted: “I could play it for nine holes, and then it suddenly hit me.

The level sort of declined after that and sort of reached its crescendo on the eighth green, and the last 10 holes wasn’t quite as good. I look back at those videos and I look back at the last Ryder Cup. It wasn’t just Sunday. It was Friday and Saturday. Surprised I had a voice left at the end of the week.

“It looked tiring to have to play golf like that for three days. So I think I learnt a lot from that and learnt that, you know, it’s good to get excited and it’s good to have that but at the same time, if I need and have to be called upon to play a late match on Sunday or whatever it is, I want to have all my energy in reserve so that I can give everything for 18 holes because I did hit a wall that back nine on Sunday, and it cost me.”

Though Reed was victorious, he has similar memories of the exhaustion of the encounter and was grateful for the early intervention of then US vice-captain Tiger Woods for levelling him out a small bit.

“I didn’t think I could ever get that amped up,” Reed said. “I was just so through the roof, during warm-ups. It’s one great thing with Tiger being the assistant captain, he’s watching me warm up and he’s just like, ‘He needs to calm down. He needs to chill out’. I was hitting the ball sideways. I was just like, let go.”

Woods, Reed added, “pulled me aside. Kind of cracked a little joke to calm me down a little bit, and I was able to bring that adrenaline level down to manageable rather than sitting there on high rev.

“It’s something that was hard to, you know, make sure you stayed in that mindframe and also that level you could play. You get so amped up, it’s hard. It’s hard to figure out how far you’re going to hit the golf ball but at the same time, if you’re so even-keeled on the other direction, it’s hard to get yourself up to get going. You only have 18 holes.

The good thing is I’ve been able to manage that really well, and luckily I was able to have Tiger there to kind of help me out there on Sunday.

While Reed is proud to have played great golf with such high emotion coursing his veins, this year’s protagonists must be able to handle the white heat that a vocal and passionate crowd will generate in the Parisian suburbs between Friday morning and Sunday evening.

In the past, captains have feared watching their rookies wilt under the pressure of the Ryder Cup spotlight. This time around, it seems the main danger could be seeing them blow a gasket in the excitement.

Yet European captain Thomas Bjorn, not always on an even keel himself during his glory days on the European Tour, has insisted he will not try to change players this week.

In 26-year-old Hatton, the Dane sees a player in his own mould in terms of temperament and wants the Englishman to be himself in the quest for points. So too 23-year-old Rahm, of whom one journalist yesterday wondered was he in danger of being too excited.

“No,” replied Bjorn, “you can’t be too excited about this.

“No, he’s not too excited. He’s excited, but he’s not too excited.”