McGinley: European underdogs must recover “siege mentality” for 2023 Ryder Cup

Xander Schauffele during the 2020 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course. Picture: Ryan Casey Aguinaldo

Xander Schauffele relies on his underdog mentality to compete and that’s just the attitude Paul McGinley believes Europe must revive to win back the Ryder Cup.

Olympic champion Schauffele is looking to hit the ground running in 2022 as he seeks his second win the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, where Seamus Power is flying the Irish flag.

While he won three points out of four on his debut in that record 19-9 US Ryder Cup win at Whistling Straits, the Californian (28) only made this week’s winners-only field after the PGA TOUR agreed late in the day to give the Olympic champion a spot.

The world No. 6 reckons didn’t win a PGA TOUR event last year but reckons he can make the winner’s circle more often by sticking to underdog mentality his father Stefan instilled in him as a youngster.

“The work hard sort of mentality and blue collar mentality that he's sort of ingrained in me as a kid is something I can always take away from golf,” said Schauffele, who has had nine top-10s in 18 major appearances but still feels like an underdog compared to major-winning peers Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.

“It's funny, I always feel like whatever happens off the course will happen on the course, and he really made that apparent to me at a young age. So I've always tried to be a better person off so I can handle situations on, and I think I would always, if I had kids that's something I would try to relate to them as well.”

Europe has yet to choose the 2023 Ryder Cup captain but former skipper McGinley reckons the new man will have to instil a “siege mentality” in his troops in Rome.

Analysing how best to combat what is a formidable young US squad — “the best I've seen in my time playing, captaining and now commentating on Ryder Cups” — the Dubliner reckons Europe must not only perform better but dig deeper.

“As our European players migrate more and more to the PGA Tour and base themselves and their families in America, it is important that we work hard not to lose our identity as Europeans,” McGinley wrote in his year-ending column for Sky Sports.

“The gnarly ways that we have used to thrive in past Ryder Cups are key to us playing with an underdog mindset and a siege mentality.

“The European Tour and Ryder Cup Europe have always done an extensive review post-Ryder Cups and this year will I'm sure be no different.”

There is no official timetable in place for the naming of the 2023 captain but the last Captains - Pádraig Harrington, Thomas Bjorn and Darren Clarke — will sit down with Keith Pelley and a Tournament Committee representative to make their choice at some stage in the early part of this year.

There has been a full debrief with all key stakeholders involved at Whistling Straits, including Harrington.