Rónán MacNamara in Straffan
Rory McIlroy cannot understand why Sergio Garcia has kicked up a fuss over not receiving a Ryder Cup wildcard from European captain Luke Donald for this month’s contest in Bethpage Black.
The Spaniard was scheduled to play in this week’s Amgen Irish Open as one of the select few LIV renegades at The K Club but withdrew before Donald announced his wildcards picks on Monday.
Reports say that Garcia found Donald’s rejection call mentally tough to handle and he subsequently took his name off the entry list even though the Irish Open is not part of Ryder Cup qualification.
“No, I don’t (understand),” McIlroy said in his pre-Amgen Irish Open press conference ahead of his 16th start. “I mean, it would have been great for the tournament if Sergio played, but obviously, he was trying to keep himself sharp, I guess, if he did get a pick.
“He has the right to enter and pull out of whatever tournaments he wants to. As I said, Luke, has assembled a very strong 12 players, and I think the right 12 players, and I’m sure he’s disappointed.
“But you know, at the same time, I’m sure he wishes Europe well and wants us to win.”
Ryder Cup rookie and reigning Irish Open champion Rasmus Hojgaard also withdrew for pre-Ryder Cup scheduling reasons but US Ryder Cup rejects Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka are in the field.
Donald opted for continuity heading to Bethpage Black with eleven of the victorious side in Rome set to board the plane to New York in three weeks and McIlroy believes players like Robert MacIntyre, Ludvig Åberg and others are are lot stronger than two years ago.
“The entire team has played some very good golf between Rome and now,” McIlroy said.
“Someone like Rob MacIntyre, who’s won a couple of times now on the PGA Tour, had a chance to win the US Open.
“And I think as well, speaking to the team, a few of the guy’s games, or the profile of their games, if you look at it from a stats perspective, I think when we went to Rome, you had some guys that were purely foursomes players, some guys that were purely fourball players. ‘I think now we have a lot of flexibility within that 12 in foursomes or fourballs to change the dynamics around a little bit.
“I think the 12 that are assembled definitely offer the team a lot more flexibility than we had in Rome.
“Obviously Rome worked out very, very well for us. But as you said, you could argue that pretty much every player in the team is more accomplished than what they were two years ago.”
If you’re judging by the Team Europe and Team USA facial expressions on the announcement zoom calls you might feel Europe are already one up.
But the continent face a mammoth task to keep hold of the Ryder Cup and win on away soil for the first time since the Miracle at Medinah in 2012.
Home advantage in the Ryder Cup has proven to be dominant since 2012 with Europe previously winning away in 2004 while USA haven’t won on European soil since 1993. McIlroy believes winning in Bethpage Black would be up there with one of golf’s great achievements.
“I’m very excited,” he stated. “I’ve said this repeatedly, but I think winning an away Ryder Cup is up there with one of the biggest achievements in the game, especially nowadays.
“There’s a reason that every Ryder Cup for the last 10 years has went to the home team. You know that the home team do have a big advantage, from the setup of the golf course to how partisan the crowd is.
“So, yeah, I think the Europeans have a wonderful opportunity this year to to achieve something very, very special, but it’s also going to be very difficult.
“They have a very strong team. They’re going to have a pretty raucous crowd on their side and on a golf course that a lot of them know pretty well from, you know, previous tournaments there.
“Make no mistake, we know we’re up against it, we know we’ve got a tall task on our hands.”
