McGinley lauds Europe's 'terrific, great response' on opening day of Ryder Cup

Europe Ryder Cup team captain Paul McGinley is delighted with his side's foursomes performance on the opening day at Gleneagles, saying that it was a terrific and great response.

Europe's Justin Rose and Henrik Stinson helped the hosts earn two points on the opening day of the Ryder Cup as they fired them to a 5-3 lead over U.S. at Gleneagles.

McGinley has been delighted with it and said that it was terrific, adding that as they have all seen in Ryder Cups over the years, momentum can be a huge and key factor, The BBC reported.

The skipper said that it looked like at one stage Europe were going to win 3-1 in the morning and ended up losing 11/2 to 21/2. He added that the way the Americans played the last few holes was very strong and they certainly had their tails up going into the afternoon sessions.

 

McGinley further added that that can often have a ripple effect and a domino effect so for the European squad to react the way they did, for all four matches to be up after six holes, was a terrific response.

He said that it shows a huge amount of character that Europe has, huge amount of talent that they can come out with such strong pairings in the afternoon and a great response and resilience from the team.

McGinley also explained his decision to pair McIlroy with Poulter on Saturday, after the latter suffered his biggest loss in the Ryder Cup when he and Stephen Gallacher were beaten 5 and 4 by rookie pair Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed.

He said that he put Poulter back with McIlroy because he played the senior figure with Stevie Gallacher and obviously it didn't go well. McGinley added that Poulter's heart is that big and that was a real body blow for him to lose a match heavily in a Ryder Cup.

The European said that he just wants to bring Poulter back up again and put him on the shoulder of the world's best player, and he knows that he would respond to that.