SAINT-QUENTIN-en-YVELINES, France — Justin Rose, flush from his $10 million payday Sunday as the FedExCup playoff winner, declared Wednesday he believes the European team is “fresher’’ than the American side entering this Ryder Cup.
Countering the argument Phil Mickelson made about how it’s an advantage that U.S. players enter the Ryder Cup sharp from weeks of competition in the FedExCup playoffs, Rose said he believes that might be a detriment.
“I think our team is fresher than the American team, so it’s going to be an interesting conversation for sure,’’ Rose said. “I’m hoping that that’s one of our benefits is that we are slightly more rested as a team, as a collective group. The [American] guys have been playing hard, obviously, and playing under a lot of pressure.’’
Eleven of the 12 players on the American team played all the way through last week’s Tour Championship while six of the 12 players on the European side played through Atlanta.
“I think the FedExCup is a big asset for us,’’ Mickelson said. “I think it’s a big asset for the U.S. players because in the past, we’ve had six weeks off in between our last competition and the Ryder Cup. This year, although we might be tired [and] we might have had a long stretch, our games are much sharper because of our consistent play week-in and week-out heading into this event.’’
U.S. captain Jim Furyk somewhat squelched any chance of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson being paired together — as they were famously and unsuccessfully in 2004 by then-captain Hal Sutton.
“I guess nothing’s out of the realm [of possibility],’’ Furyk said. “They did play some golf [Tuesday]. I think they both mentioned it would be a lot better pairing than it was in the past. I won’t ever say it wouldn’t happen, but it’s probably not too likely.’’
If you don’t think Rory McIlroy has an edge to him, check out his response to a question Wednesday about whether “there was any element of intimidation’’ playing alongside Woods in Sunday’s final round of the Tour Championship, which Woods won and McIlroy shot 74 to fall into a tie for seventh.
“That East Lake rough was really tough, yeah,’’ McIlroy said, overtly ignoring the Woods element. “That was the most intimidating part about it. I started hitting a few drives left and right early, and I didn’t actually have quite a good view from the trees on Sunday. I couldn’t really see what was happening too much.’’
McIlroy said he learned from his 2016 singles loss to Patrick Reed at Hazeltine, where he and Reed delivered one of the most epic, amped-up matches of all time.
“I could play it for nine holes and then it suddenly hit me,’’ McIlroy said of the adrenaline rush. “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 — not just Sunday but Friday and Saturday [and I’m] 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 learned a lot from that and learned that 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.’’
