Graeme McDowell expects the USA Ryder Cup team to eventually defeat their European rivals but with hopes Europe can delay a ‘beating’ for some years to come.

McDowell was responding to a new-found USA team bonding process, as evident on Thursday night when Jack Nicklaus hosted some 22 Americans to his residence for dinner, and whether this new approach would have any influence on the USA being able to turn around Europe’s recent domination of the Ryder Cup.

“… pause …There is so little influence that the captain can have on the team and apart from creating a good atmosphere in the team room during the week,” he said.

“It comes down to hitting shots and holing putts, and you look at these last four or five Ryder Cups as it all comes down to a Sunday afternoon and who holes the putts and putts not holed.

Graeme McDowell knows Europe can expect a Ryder Cup beating but hopes it can be delayed for years to come. (Picture Eoin Clarke, www.golffile.ie)

“Davis did a phenomenal job at Medinah and it was a miracle Europe fought back to win there, and I fully expect them to do a great job this year,” said McDowell.

“The team will be prepared and they are a hell of a great young, talented team.

“So I think there is a US beating coming down the road, as in beating up on Europe and let’s hope we can delay that as long as possible, as they are awfully good.”

Whatever McDowell admits, and after first having unintentionally ‘leaked’ news of the USA Ryder Cup team bonding dinner, it’s exciting for the future of the Ryder Cup the USA Team is talking about the biennial competition in February, and some seven months before the event gets under way at Hazeltine.

“It’s exciting for the tournament and it’s exciting that the Ryder Cup is going from strength to strength, and clearly the way Europe has been playing the last 15 to 18 is fuelling the fire for what is a very exciting golf tournament,” said McDowell after posting a second round 69 to move back to level par through two rounds of the Honda Classic.

“The four Ryder Cups I have played are very special to me and I would like to play a fifth and a sixth.

“So the anticipation levels will start to build throughout the summer.

“You look at the leader boards so far this year and they have an incredible team in Rickie (Fowler) and Jordan (Spieth) and Brookes Koepka, Dustin (Johnson) and all these guys as they playing as well as they are playing.

“So Europe is going to go in there as underdogs and just the way we like it.

“And win, lose or draw, and I’ve been on a losing team and I enjoyed the week as nearly as much as I enjoyed the winning weeks.  They are just special.”

However when reminded ‘the underdog’ tagline was how European Captain Darren Clarke summed up this year’s Ryder Cup, McDowell remarked:  “Oh yes, that’s right!  We love the underdog tag and we are the underdogs, and it’s worked well in the past for us.”

It had been McDowell after the formal part of his pre-Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship last month who revealed Nicklaus was hosting the USA Ryder Cup team to dinner.

McDowell had contested the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in the company of Love 111 who, whether it was intentional or not, mentioned to ‘G Mac’ news of the then proposed dinner.

“I wasn’t trying to break that news but then at the time I didn’t figure it was a secret, so I figured Davis wouldn’t be telling me if it were not a secret,” said McDowell.

“But then when I saw the headline that I had let it slip, I contacted Davis to say that was far from my intention, and I figured news of the dinner was out there already, and just joking he hadn’t told my anything about what was happening with his team other than that news.

“However I did say to Davis that I would like to attend that dinner they had last night, as that would have been pretty cool, and pretty cool just to go and visit Jack’s house.”