Rory McIlroy inherits mantle of Ryder Cup's 'most wanted'

In sport, at its most intense, there is always a marked man. Think Messi in soccer. The Gooch in football. King Henry in hurling. There's always one. In golf, such a target isn't so relevant. It is an individual, selfish sport where players are out for themselves. Except, that is, in the Ryder Cup. Here, it is different. There is a team, a bond. Consequently, a target to hit.

And if the underdogs are ever going to claim an edge, it is by exposing the other team's talisman. This time, it is Rory McIlroy who will venture onto the manicured fairways of Gleneagles and he might as well be wearing a big red bullseye on his back, or one of those psychedelic high vis jackets that can be spotted a mile away.

Paul McGinley, the European captain, knows that McIlroy is the one the Americans will want to take out. “That is something I will be discussing with Rory . . . . I have a number of things to talk about with him. We’ll engage at the right time,” said the Dubliner, a man known for his meticulous and studious planning.

Unusual situation

McGinley is in a somewhat unusual situation, though. Through most Ryder Cups, that target has usually been placed on the back of an American. Most times, it has been a USA captain who has worked with his man to prepare him for a bid from the Europeans to take him out. In modern times, that man has, more often than not, been

Tiger Woods

.

There have been exceptions to the rule. In the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island, Ian Woosnam – who had occupied the world number one spot since his Masters win the previous April – was the marked man and, in the 2008 match at Valhalla, Pádraig Harrington – who had won the season’s final two Majors, the British Open and the US PGA – was the one earmarkedto be taken down by the Americans.

Woods, though, has been the target more often than any other player in the Ryder Cup’s history. And, for a golfer who demonstrated relentless will en route to 14 career victories in the Majors, there would seem to be some evidence that the Ryder Cup provided an uncomfortable environment for him and also a galvanising effect for the opposition. The invincible aura he brought to tournaments simply didn’t manifest itself on the course at Ryder Cups.

So it was that, in putting a target on Woods’s back, and then going out and taking him down, successive European teams created an era of dominance that had previously belonged to the Americans in the old days when it was the USA versus Britain and then Britain and Ireland.

Why should Woods’s record in the Ryder Cup be so poor? He has only once featured on a winning team – in 1999 – in seven appearances and has a win ratio of only 43 per cent in his own matches.

Unique environment

As the sports psychologist Dr Karl Morris observed, “The Ryder Cup really is a unique environment for one week every two years and some people like Ian Poulter get fired up and it helps them focus, but others find the whole thing too intense. And if you’ve been starved of the feeling of a team or if it’s just not for you, then it’s a difficult place to be.”

McIlroy may have share many traits with Woods in how he goes about pursuing Major titles with a single-minded obsession, but there is no doubt that – ever since getting over his “exhibition” remark – the Ulster man has embraced the concept since making his debut at Celtic Manor and savouring success again at Medinah.

As Des Smyth, the vice-captain this time, put it of McIlroy and how he would be the man the Americans wanted to take down, “I think it will be a feather in anybody’s cap if they beat Rory, certainly in the singles. From an American point of view, whoever picks Rory, they would love to beat him. Everyone loves to beat the number one . . . . . . I don’t think he will have the same impact on our team as Tiger had on their theirs. As I viewed it, there was an aura around Tiger. Rory is the boy next door in my opinion, a charming fellow, a really nice kid, the best player in the world and he is on our team. That’s going to help our team big time.”

But you can be sure the “nice kid” is being pinned up on the USA teamroom wall as the prime target.