Bjorn’s faith in McIlroy rewarded
Rory McIlroy will partner Sergio Garcia in the Saturday morning fourballs
Thomas Bjorn has total faith in Rory McIlroy's ability to lead from the front as Europe prepares for a US Ryder Cup backlash today.
The European skipper insisted he never considered dropping the Holywood star after his disappointing morning fourball performance with rookie Thorbjorn Olesen and growing speculation about his relationship with Michael Bannon after he was seen receiving coaching from Pete Cowen in Paris this week.
Bannon confirmed this week that there’s “no change” in his relationship with McIlroy, but with the Co Down man’s game still erratic, the chatter will only grow if the former world number one fails to build on his foursomes win with Ian Poulter today.
Bjorn expects McIlroy to help the home side build on yesterday's foursomes whitewash of Jim Furyk's US squad when he leads off the fourballs with Sergio Garcia against Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau today.
"Great players, when they don't perform to the standards that they want to, they have an ability to just go and prove to themselves," Bjorn said of McIlroy. "They want to put it right, and he did that this afternoon."
Europe lost a tight fourball session 3-1 with McIlroy failing to make a birdie in a 4&2 defeat to Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler.
But after watching him bounce back alongside Ian Poulter to beat Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson 4&2, he has total confidence in the Co Down man's ability to reset and "go again" today.
"I never have any doubt in Rory McIlroy, because if I start doubting him, then I probably shouldn't be doing this job," Bjorn said.
"I believe in him, and it was great to see his response today. But that's more on him. I was never in doubt that I wanted to have him on the golf course this afternoon."
Describing the day as "a bit of a roller coaster ride," Bjorn knows that the Americans will come out fighting today with Furyk sticking with his fourball pairings.
Bjorn has decided to rest Justin Rose and bring in Poulter to partner Jon Rahm in the anchor match against Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth.
But with Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton taking on Johnson and Fowler at number two and the brilliant Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood looking for another win over Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed, he's looking forward to another strong European performance.
He credited the belief of his players for Europe's foursomes rally and pointed to that lone fourball win by Fleetwood and Molinari over Woods and Reed as key to rallying team spirit and crowd support for the afternoon.
"That two guys stand up in the end and holes the putts on 15, 16, 17 to win the match when it really matters, it gives them belief, but it also gives their teammates hope," he said.
As for McIlroy's resilience, he added: "I made quite clear all along that I'm not in any way, shape or form qualified to tell Rory McIlroy how to play golf.
"But I'm qualified to lead him in a direction with the people he's surrounding himself with this week to get good things out of him.
"And he is that guy that he only needs very short comments, and then he goes again."
If Bjorn was cautious heading into day two, Furyk had no option but to sound a note of optimism.
"We got the momentum in the morning, out 3-1," he said. "Europe flipped it quickly and got some unbelievable momentum in the afternoon for 4-0. So two totally different sides in the morning and the afternoon.
“You know, you've got to look at it, we played for eight points so far out of 28. The event's still pretty young. We've got one more team format tomorrow and then the singles. Eight out of 28, you know, pretty small percentage of this golf tournament been played."
He took his hat off to Europe for their brilliance in the foursomes, commenting: “We have to shore things up, and I'm guessing we'll switch things up in the afternoon tomorrow. We've already been thinking about that.”
As for Phil Mickelson who lost 5&4 with Bryson DeChambeau to Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren, he defended the left-hander.
"I have all the confidence in both of those players, and I have so much confidence in Phil in his ability to take a young player like Bryson and help him out," Furyk said.
"And also, it's Phil Mickelson, Major champion. He's got a lot of experience, and I put that confidence in him. And I'll be honest. I'd do it again. I have a lot of confidence in all 12."
