Battle of the giants! Rory McIlroy ready to lay down the law to taunter Phil Mickelson
RORY McILROY will set out to silence Phil Mickelson on the course after being drawn to face America's taunter-in-chief on the opening morning of the Ryder Cup.
McIlroy and Sergio Garcia will take on the crack US partnership of Mickelson and Keegan Bradley in the final match of the morning fourballs.
It is being billed as a grudge match after Mickelson's 'liti-gate' barb in the build-up delivered towards McIlroy and Graeme McDowell.
"They are obviously a very strong pairing. They've never been beaten before together. We're looking to hand them their first defeat tomorrow morning," warned McIlroy. "I'm excited.
"It will be a tough match as they're both great competitors. Obviously we know how pumped up Keegan gets for the Ryder Cup from last time.
"We just have got to control what we can, put two balls in play, give ourselves two looks at every chance and if we can do that we put the pressure on them early and get the crowd behind us. That's what we need to do."
Ryder Cup Teams
I'm absolutely buzzing to be playing with Stevie G at his home course in Scotland
Mickelson, who won three matches out of three in Medinah with Bradley, allowed himself a wry smile when he saw the match-up.
"It's going to be a difficult match against what we perceive as the strongest team that Europe has," he said.
"I know what a great player Rory McIlroy is and I've played with Sergio for a number of years and know what a great player he is.
"We have our work cut out for us, but we're on top of our games as well, and hopefully we'll have a good match."
Europe have won seven of the last nine contests and go into Gleneagles as hot favourites. Some in their camp have tried to play down the status but Europe's kingpin Ian Poulter, who will partner local hero Stephen Gallacher in the opening fourballs against American rookies Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, is happy to carry it.
"We are favourites," he said. "We have worked very hard in the long time we've been playing Ryder Cup to try to get into that position and we should be proud that we have that tag.
"We want to go out there and deliver. We have 12 members of this team who are fully ready to go.
"But we are coming up a strong American team and we can't take them lightly. We have the utmost respect for every one of their players and we need to stay committed to doing our job. Anything can happen at a Ryder Cup."
As they set out today, the players will walk through a tunnel to the first tee adorned by images of Ryder Cup legends.
"I can't wait now to walk through that tunnel," said Poulter. "The last picture we are going to see is Seve as we walk out the other end and walk onto the tee to loud, rapturous applause. I can't wait to smash it down the middle.
"I'm absolutely buzzing to be playing with Stevie G at his home course in Scotland at his first Ryder Cup. It's going to be amazing.
"We have lots of imagery and fantastic quotes in our team room. We've had some incredible players through the years, but we always refer back to Seve. He meant so much to Team Europe.
"He had a vision to overturn the red, white and blue that we've seen winning for decades and he tried to instil that in the teams he played in. We want to play for him and stand for what he was trying to do.
"We now believe in it. We've delivered upon it in the last decade and we should be really proud."
