Thomas Pieters reckons he is ready to compete for a major after his sensational Ryder Cup debut.
The nerveless Belgian rookie was one of the few bright spots for Team Europe on a weekend of disappointment, claiming four points from five matches.
While the event ended in defeat for Darren Clarke’s men, Pieters believes the experience of performing in front of a rowdy Hazeltine crowd will boost his chances of claiming one of golf’s biggest prizes.
Pieters, who formed a successful partnership with Rory McIlroy after losing his opening foursome clash with Lee Westwood, said: “I got a real buzz from last week in the sense of being able to pull the shots off that I needed to.
“A couple of times on 16 I was maybe up one or two and shot 220 yards over the water with 40,000 people looking at you. To be able to pull that off gives you a good feeling.
“Even Rory will tell you it’s nothing like the majors. The Ryder Cup is the most nervous he’s been.
“Coming down the stretch in a major is going to seem easy after this. I’ve only played two majors (The Open and US PGA) and I look forward to playing the other two as well.
“I learned that I can play in that kind of environment. I don’t think anywhere in the majors or the PGA Tour is like that. It’s going to be easier.
“Being able to play in that environment, I think it’s going to be a lot easier in the majors. I took a lot of confidence from that.”
McIlroy was so impressed by his team-mate’s display against Davis Love III’s Team USA he declared afterwards that he wants to form a partnership with Pieters which will span the next 20 years.
And that went down well with Pieters.
“That’s fine with me,” the three-time European Tour winner said as he met the media before this weekend’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
“It’s Rory McIlroy, you know. He’s the best player in the world. When he says ‘I want you on my team for the next 20 years’, I just say, ‘okay’.”
As well as learning from his first battle with the Americans, Pieters made sure to glean as much as he could from the time he spent on the course with McIlroy.
The 24-year-old said: “Rory seems to make all the putts when he needs to. That’s what I’ve learned. I don’t know how he does it but I have to try and do that as well.
“Rory’s like a machine. Obviously it’s matchplay and you’re going to take on more risks than you do in other tournaments.
“Us playing together actually worked out nicely. We both hit it well, we both played very aggressive and I think we both believed in our abilities so that if one of us hit a bad shot to a tight pin, the other would pull it off. That’s how it turned out.”
He added: “I think it is tough to talk about my individual performance when you lose as a team. You got there as a team so you win or lose as a team.
“Obviously people are talking about me being a rookie and winning four points. I played great and was really happy to earn those points.
“But three of those points were with Rory, so I don’t see them as my points but I can see how I get a lot of questions about it.”
The quality of the golf on show in Minnesota verged on the sublime at times but not every member of Team Europe was able to maintain those high standards.
Clarke has faced the odd barbed comment about his decision to stick with Westwood and Martin Kaymer for the duration of the weekend in the face of their obvious struggles with form.
Pieters proved he could cope with the pressure but did not think his captain called it wrong when he gave fellow rookies Matthew Fitzpatrick, Andy Sullivan and Chris Wood just two matches each.
He said: “I know Darren is going to get a lot of critics obviously because we lost the Ryder Cup. But if he had won, he wouldn’t be asked about it.
“It was Darren’s method how he was going to do it but it didn’t turn out how he’d have wanted it to or how we wanted it to. But I don’t think there was any wrong decisions made.”
