Europe captain Pádraig Harrington admits the US are favourites on paper but insists his 12 players can triumph in hostile terrain
We have not yet reached the point where the American public has grown tired of the Ryder Cup and its unsatisfactory outcomes. Europe have prevailed in four out of the last five stagings of this event, which marks a blow to the confidence of an expectant sporting nation.
At lunchtime on Thursdayyesterday in this rural corner of Wisconsin, Bryson DeChambeau did laps of the 1st tee, Jim Furyk danced in a manner inappropriate for a man of 51 and Dustin Johnson blasted T-shirts into the stands from the kind of launcher typically seen in Star Wars. The whooping, hollering and screaming was of a crowd primed for epic battle. Five years have passed since a Ryder Cup took place on this side of the Atlantic; absence has clearly made the hearts grow fonder. With the wind whipping and Lake Michigan growling, this is already quite the spectacle. Now for the serious stuff as Europe seek to keep hold of the golden trophy over the rugged terrain of Whistling Straits.
