European players were left in tears after motivational videos aimed at inspiring them to Ryder Cup glory, Jon Rahm has revealed, as he urged his teammates to maintain their unbeaten record at home going into the 30th year.
The Spaniard is expected to be one of Europe’s big players this week, having already won two majors in his career, but he stressed he would be happy to lose all five of his matches if it meant his teammates could lift the trophy would win back.
“Obviously the best part about the Ryder Cup, other than winning, is going into the team room and seeing all these great golfers come together and have a very special, unique bond,” Rahm said. “I can go 0-5 and if the team wins I will be very happy. As long as we win, I don’t care. As long as we get 14½ points, it doesn’t really matter what I do.”
When asked about those team bonding sessions, Rahm said, “We had some individual videos and some collective videos. There were few players who didn’t shed a few tears Monday afternoon. I can say that. A lot of it was family related and the reason why we are all here. I don’t want to say too much more than that. But if you were to watch it, you would feel many of the same emotions that we do.”
The Americans have not won a Ryder Cup in Europe since 1993 and Rahm said his team was determined to keep the streak alive. “It’s a big problem. You want to stretch the streak as much as possible. Hopefully we can enter the 2030s with Europe remaining undefeated here at home.”
Meanwhile, Tommy Fleetwood has warned his teammates that the rough situation at Marco Simone is “criminal”, but denied that the course was set up to give the European players a major advantage.
“The rough is thick,” Fleetwood said. “It’s quite punishable, especially on some of the dogleg holes, and there are a lot of doglegs on the golf course. It’s easy to try to be very aggressive, or find yourself being aggressive, and you won’t get away with it on every hit. You may get lucky once in a while, but shots from far away – or shots that are just a little bit wrong – are always punished in a potentially quite harsh manner.”
That was evident on the first tee when Fleetwood’s playing partner Rory McIlroy hit a drive into the rough that took several minutes to find. However, Fleetwood played down suggestions that the thick, rough and slow greens would significantly help the home side.
“I always find it difficult to say that courses have any particular advantage for either team,” he said. “You look at the strength of both teams, it is of course very difficult to find advantages here and there. But of course the home team will always look for those things that can help them in particular.
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“The course won’t bring you many favors or much luck. But it’s just a demanding tee-to-green course, really. I think we’re all enjoying the setup. It’s very fair. I think you just have to find your way a lot.”
Meanwhile, Rahm also revealed that he had spoken to his Spanish compatriot Sergio García and fellow LIV Golf rebel Ian Poulter for advice on Monday.
“I had a little chat with Sergio, and also with Poulter,” Rahm said. “Not that it will be easy to take on the role those two played both on and off the golf course, but just to hear them talk about what they were thinking and what they were feeling is obviously invaluable information.”