Media messaging key as Europe goes to war in enemy territory
Luke Donald. © European Tour Group
Captains matter and so do managers, and while we don't know what Pep Guardiola told the European players or skipper Luke Donald during the recent BMW PGA, he knows from experience that the messages you send to your troops in the press room can make the difference.
Donald later said he "f**king loved" Rory McIlroy's passionate Saturday evening car park rant in Rome in 2023 when Shane Lowry had to restrain him as he berated Patrick Cantlay's caddie Joe LaCava for his hat-waving antics on the 18th green.
McIlroy was dubbed "Rocky" McIlroy from that point on by his teammates, and it clearly had a galvanising effect on Europe, who snuffed out the small spark of hope Cantlay had given the Americans.
Guardiola knows a thing or two about the importance of messaging and how it can transform the atmosphere in a dressing room when the stakes are high.
"We had a private gathering at Wentworth, and he came along, and I spent a good bit of time with him, and I enjoyed his company," explained Europe's Strategic Advisor, Paul McGinley when asked about Guardiola’s advice to European team.
"Pep's a golf nut. He watches golf on TV all the time. Big friend of Tommy Fleetwood's. It was great to have him there, and he knows a lot of the players, and absolutely, we picked his brain.
"Luke has been picking his brain over the last number of months, along with lots of other people, too. We've been gathering information to support our own ideas about what we do and the different challenges we're facing.
"We're able to ask people like him what his thoughts and experiences are so we can come at this differently than we've ever come at it before, and to be better prepared than we've ever been before."
Spanish football is dominated by Real Madrid and Barcelona but nothing that has happened so far in the Xabi Alonso-Hansi Flick era comes close to replicating the crackling tension that accompanied the Guardiola-Mourinho war.
It came to a head before their Champions League semi-final clash in 2011, when Guardiola finally responded to Mourinho's provocative press room antics on the eve of the first leg in Madrid.
The Catalan had adopted a turn-the-other-cheek attitude until Mourinho provoked him by referring to comments he'd made after Madrid had overcome Barcelona's dominance to win the Copa del Rey final the previous week.
Pep Guardiola. Picture: By Steffen Prößdorf
Guardiola noted that his side had been close to winning: had a Pedro goal not been ruled out for a very close, but correct, offside decision.
"A new era has begun," Mourinho said. "Until now, there were two groups of coaches. One very, very small group of coaches that don't speak about refs and then a big group of coaches, of which I am part, who criticise the refs when they have mistakes – people like me who don't control their frustration, but also people who are happy to value a great job from a ref.
"Now there is a third group, which is only [Guardiola], that criticises referees when they get decisions right!"
Guardiola was advised not to get into a war of words, but he had a plan.
As Xavi Hernandez recalled in the documentary 'Take The Ball, Pass The Ball', "Mourinho was applying so much pressure that the Barcelona inner circle needed him to take a stand."
"As Mourinho has spoken so candidly about me and spoken about me by name, and using tú [the informal form of you], then I will do the same," Guardiola began in the Real Madrid press room.
Asking which camera was Mourinho's, he stared down the lens and said: "Tomorrow at 8.45 we will play a match on the field. Outside of the field, he has won the entire year, the entire season and in the future. He can have his personal Champions League outside the field. “Fine. Let him enjoy it, I'll give him that. But this is a game. When it comes to sport, we will play and sometimes we will win, sometimes we will lose. We are happy with smaller victories, trying to get the world to admire us, and we are very proud of this.
“I can give you an immense list of things we could complain about.... but tomorrow, at 8.45 pm, we will take to the field and we will try to play football as best as possible.
"In this room, he is the chief, the fucking man. In here, he is the fucking man, and I can't compete with him."
The Barcelona dressing room loved Guardiola's defiant tone and they won the first leg 0-2 before going on to reach the final at Wembley, where they beat Manchester United 3-1.
McIlroy's explosive reaction on Saturday in Rome galvanised Europe, and while his public persona is conservative and non-confrontational, Donald must find a way to get the best from his troops in enemy territory.
"I don't want to say too much about what the messages are, and let the Americans know what we're doing here behind the scenes," McGinley revealed. "But let's just say that there's a lot of common ground in the advice that we've been given.
"A big part of that is dealing with the white noise that's going to be coming from the crowd, and how we deal with that and still perform. That noise is going to come. We're not going to turn it off."
European birdies will silence the US crowd in the Battle of Bethpage, where the real talking will be done between the ropes from 7:10 am on Friday morning.
