USA Ryder Cup captain, Davis Love 111 singled out Rory McIlroy for special praise and hinting of the potential Medinah Singles pairing next month of McIlroy and Tiger Woods.
Love was in Charleston Monday to speak on his eight players who automatically qualified for the USA side following the close of qualifying at the PGA Championship.
Love will then announce his four ‘wildcard’ picks on September 4th in New York.
USA Ryder Cup captain, Davis Love 111 overlooking Charleston Marina on Monday. (Photo - Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
Though Love did announce the selection of Scott Verplank and Jeff Sluman as his two additional vice-captains, after earlier this year announcing Fred Couples and Mike Hulbert as his back-room staff.
However after McIlroy’s eight-stroke Ocean Course winning cruise the likelihood of the new World No. 1 taking on Woods in the Sunday Singles at Medinah has not only whet the appetite of the golf world but also Love, who himself played in six Ryder Cups including the 1993 and 1999 winning sides.
“I’d want to go watch that one, for sure,” said Love.
“ It would be nice to be able to rig them, rig a couple like that for Tiger and Rory (smiling)
“I think also Tiger would like that. So, that would be a great match. I’m sure they both would relish that.
“But then we’ve got some guys on our team that I’m sure would love to take Rory on, because you want to play the best. You want to play a guy that’s hot, and I know Tiger or Phil or any of those guys would love to try it.
“The beauty of the Ryder Cup now is, is that these guys are close to us. It’s not like we got on a boat and we went over there and we met these guys and played one match every two years and didn’t know who they were. These guys travel on our tour, hang out with us.
“I sat and had lunch with Luke Donald one day last week. I mean, it’s normal for us.
“So we don’t see it as Rory versus Tiger.
“It’s U.S. versus Europe, and we are all going to be friends before and we are all going to be friends after, just maybe not quite as close for those three days. “
Having watched close hand McIlroy in recent years, Love 111 likened McIlroy to a ‘caged animal’, so much so, once you turn him lose you can want to run for cover.
“I watched Rory, we were right around the same pairings when we played this year in Memphis,” said Love.
“We were both right near the lead and we both felt like we should have won the golf tournament.
“And I watched how Rory was just always felt like he was leaving something on the table. He knew he was about to break loose, and I’ve watched him since then, you can tell he’s caged up and ready to go and ready to bust loose, and he certainly timed it right.
“Rory just seems to have that ability that when it’s a big tournament, he’s right there just waiting to break loose.
“A lot like Tiger; the bigger the stage, the better he plays.”
And Love 111 said one of the first tasks for Sluman was to send him out to Medinah and check-up on what rival European Captain, Jose Maria Olazabal was up to.
“Ollie’ has been in Chicago since missing the cut in the PGA Championship and spent yesterday (MON) playing a practice round with now World No. 2 Luke Donald.
