Davis Love's comments that the American Ryder Cup team was maybe "the best golf team maybe ever assembled" has caused surprise in the golfing world.
In general, Love is a pretty placid and calculated character and would choose his words carefully, to make sure not to antagonize the opposition. The same though, cannot be said for Johnny Miller.
Miller is a two-time major winner having won the US Open and Open Championships in the 1970s. He is one of golf's leading voices on American television.
Last week at the Player's Championship, he claimed; "I do believe the Euros have got, at least on paper, the worst team they’ve had in many years".
Speaking yesterday at Hazeltine, Sergio Garcia said the European team had noted the comments of both Love and Miller.
Rory, Sergio and Sully. #Teammates pic.twitter.com/tdFoFgEtZs
— Ryder Cup Team EUR (@RyderCupEurope) September 28, 2016
"Yeah, they are pretty much motivating factors. Obviously everybody has - you know what they say, opinions are like - we all have one. So everybody's allowed to have their own opinion, and that's what they think, and that's great for them. But we know what we have and that's the most important thing for us."
"So at the end of the day, you don't win Ryder Cups with your mouth, you know. You win them out there on the golf course. So that's what we'll see, which team is the best."
Garcia also claimed that one of the key reasons for success of Europe in the past two decades was due to the building of relationships on the European Tour.
"I think that our Tour, it's a lot closer between the players. I think that when you come out on The European Tour, you share rooms with players and things like that. That doesn't really happen here on the U.S. tour.
So I think you build more relationships on The European Tour. Don't get me wrong, I think that the PGA Tour is a great Tour. Obviously it's amazing. But it's a little bit, I would say, less personal than The European Tour might be. So I think that probably is one of the reasons why our relationships are easier to kind of get along and build those up."
The Spaniard will be expected to play a key part in the European team, in the event that starts on Monday morning.
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