Darren Clarke has hailed Rory McIlroy’s timely return to form and the Ryder Cup captain is hoping that his compatriot can carry that momentum into this month’s tournament at Hazeltine Golf Club.
Clarke believes that an in-form McIlroy is ‘every captain’s dream’ and was delighted to see his putting touch return on the greens of TPC Boston as he landed the Deutsche Bank Championship last weekend.
And with the Ryder Cup just three weeks away, Clarke is confident that McIlroy’s performance will inspire his European team-mates in the build-up to this year’s prestigious event.
“It was great to see him play the way we all know he can play, at the weekend in Boston, and finding his putting touch back on the greens again,” Clarke told RTE Sport, speaking in his role as an Aer Lingus ambassador at an event at St Anne's Golf Club in Dollymount.
“Rory is probably the most talented golfer in the world and if he putts well, he wins tournaments. He’s a confidence player and if can take that on forward for the rest of the FedEx Cup and then carry it on into the Ryder Cup, it’ll be massive for us at Hazeltine.
“Not just from a captain’s point of view, but from a whole team’s point of view, we all want to see him playing like that.
“He is an inspirational young man; he is so keen and excited to be part of the whole thing, as are all the other guys.
“But a Rory McIlroy playing well is every captain’s dream. I’ve known Rory since he was [so young], so to see him playing so well and being so excited for the Ryder Cup is wonderful for the whole team.”
And Clarke believes several other players on the team are also hitting form at the right time ahead of the Minnesota event, which bodes well as Europe look to win their fourth trophy in succession.
“To have Lee Westwood play great in Switzerland; Matt Fitzpatrick, Danny Willett, those guys are all playing well. The guys are in form or coming into form, so that augers well right now.”
Clarke also admitted that he would have loved to have had Shane Lowry in his Ryder Cup team and believed that the Offaly man would make the team following his breakthrough win in America last year at Firestone.
“I would love to have had him on the team,” said Clarke. “Shane played fantastic when he won last year at Firestone. It was going to be difficult to see him not make the team.
“And he was brilliant at the EurAsia (Cup) earlier this year; he was a fantastic part of the team. But again, after he finished second at the US Open in June, he sort of lost his form a little bit.
"Shane has admitted that himself; he was maybe pushing too hard and didn’t quite play that well and of course it was disappointing to have to leave him off as well.”
There is only one Irish player in this year's travelling squad of 12, and Clarke admitted that both Lowry and Graeme McDowell were in his thoughts as soon as he was confirmed as Ryder Cup captain.
“When they appointed me as captain, obviously G Mac and Shane would have been up at the top of my thoughts.
“In terms of Graeme, he has had a tough year, [his wife] Kristin has just give birth to a baby boy so he has had other things on his mind as well as Ryder Cup.
“And there are things that are more important than Ryder Cup; having another child is much more important so you can’t blame G Mac for that.
“But he knows himself that he has not been playing the way we know he can play.
“I’ve been in touch with him a lot during the whole process; he was letting me know what his schedule was, what he was doing, where he was playing and by his own admission, he said that he wasn’t quite on it.
“So while he is disappointed, he is also very understanding of why I could not pick him. And the same thing goes for Shane.”
But Clarke had nothing but praise for the Irish duo who missed out as they showed their class when he phoned to tell them that they would not be getting a captain’s pick.
“When I had to speak to them and let them know that they were not going to get wildcards, they were both unbelievably classy and understanding of the situation.
“Both of them just said, ‘Darren, I understand, I know’. All the guys in that position, they know themselves if they haven’t quite done it. And both of them said, ‘anything we can do to help, just let us know’, and that the sign of how great the two guys are.”
