Team Europe fly to Minnesota ahead of the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine
Tuesday 27 September 2016 19:13, UK
Team Europe have flown out to the United States as they bid to win their fourth successive Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.
Captain Darren Clarke and his team flew out from Heathrow Airport in London on Monday morning for the tournament which starts on Friday, and you can watch all the action live on our dedicated Sky Sports Ryder Cup channel.
Davis Love III is the man charged with guiding the USA to their first Ryder Cup victory since 2008 as he named Ryan Moore as his fourth and final wildcard pick to complete his line-up.
Clarke decided on his own team for the 41st Ryder Cup last month, with Tour Championship and FedExCup winner Rory McIlroy the highest ranked player in the party alongside Major winners Danny Willett and Henrik Stenson.
There are six rookies in the European team, including Chris Wood, Andy Sullivan and Matt Fitzpatrick, while Thomas Pieters, Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood were Clarke's three wildcard picks.
Clarke was delighted to see McIlroy clinch victory in Atlanta on Sunday after he came through a three-way play-off to secure the win.
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"Rory is a wonderful talent, he's just a very gifted professional and it was great to see him come through in the manner he did," he said. "He performed unbelievably well under the pressure there coming down the stretch so it was great to see from a European point of view."
However, Clarke was unsure whether finalising his team picks well ahead of his American counterpart offers him any advantage going into the weekend.
"Does it give me an advantage? I don't know, we shall see. But certainly, I have been thinking about things along with the vice captains and we have been working on numerous things but I'm sure Davis has done as much preparation as he can as well."
Love has suggested that his USA team may be the best ever assembled for the Ryder Cup but Masters champion Willett refused to get caught up in the hype.
"You just play golf, there is a lot of talking that goes around everything. Within everything you do you just try to do your job, at the end of the day," he said.
"We will see on Sunday night, you can't really talk your way to a win, you have got to play some good golf. The comments have been quite funny but we are just going to go out there and try to play golf."
Westwood's inclusion gives him the opportunity to surpass Sir Nick Faldo as Europe's highest points' earner in the Ryder Cup.
"First and foremost we are all going over there to try and be a unit and stand together - shoulder to shoulder, as Darren keeps saying - and win the Ryder Cup but if I can get past Nick's total in the meantime that would be great," he said.
"But, if I don't, I'd rather have a European team win."
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