Google News
Luke Donald, the captain of the European team tries to motivate his players in various ways before the start of the Ryder Cup. Donald wants to evoke emotion in his players, considering that this is one of the best ways to achieve the desired result.
At one point, Donald played a video message for his team, and the video included Rory McIlroy's caddy, who is also his friend, Harry Diamond. Speaking to the BBC, Rory said that the videos brought tears to his eyes. "There were a lot of tears shed," McIlroy told BBC.
"Harry did my one, just sort of bringing us through our journey. From when we were kids, meeting at Holywood Golf Club when we were seven years old on the putting green to all the way through and playing amateur golf together, and now we're doing our third Ryder Cup together and everything that we've done in between that time.
It's incredible. We're all here and we're all trying to play for our team-mates and our captain and our vice-captains, but then to receive a message like that and to realise how many more people that you're representing by being here, it's really, really cool.
The other guys got messages that meant just as much to them."
Rory McIlroy compares Luke Donald to other captains
Rory McIlroy has a lot of experience with the Ryder Cup, and he made a comparison between Luke Donald and previous team captains.
The Northern Irishman emphasized that the majority had a different approach, and that they wanted to cause an emotional charge just before the start of the tournament. Luke has his own style, which could be a guarantee of success in this big competition.
"It's sort of flipped. Previous Ryder Cups we've sort of gone pretty light-hearted at the start of the week and then we get hit with an emotional bomb before we go play Friday. It's a little different this year. So it flipped a little bit and I think that was part of Luke's plan and strategy."