Ryder Cup debutant Tommy Fleetwood claims neither he nor his European team-mates will be overawed by the presence of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the United States line-up at the biennial trans-Atlantic head-to-head later this month.
Woods and Mickelson were included among US team Jim Furykโs picks for the clash, which will be held at Le Golf National course just outside Paris from Sept. 28 to 30.
Fleetwood believes his team atesโ familiarity with the duo as well as home advantage will boost their bid to reclaim the Ryder Cup.
โMost of us guys on the European team play in the same tournaments against Phil and Tiger week in and week out at the moment,โ he said on a conference call to confirm his involvement in this yearโs Hong Kong Open.
โYou canโt deny theyโre two of the best golfers ever and they always will be, but when you tee it up youโre just playing another golfer, it doesnโt matter who it is.
โThey were always guaranteed to be picked and theyโve had good years themselves. Phil won a World Golf Championship and Tiger could have won three or four events on his comeback and heโs done better than anybody thought he was going to do, especially this year, and heโs playing some great stuff.
โBut that will make no difference to us, it really wonโt. It will help their team in an experience sense just because theyโve played so many Ryder Cups but it will make no difference to us.โ
The Americans are looking to win on European soil for the first time since 1993 and Fleetwood feels the advantage of playing on a course regularly used for European Tour events could give the home team the edge over a talented US team.
โIt canโt do any harm on a golf course that weโve all played on quite a lot,โ said Fleetwood, who won the French Open at Le Golf National last year.
โItโs difficult to say that against the best players in the world who play at major venues that it will make that much difference, but if itโs going to go in anybodyโs favour it will go in Europeโs, to be at home and to be on that golf course.
โLast time it was in America and the way they set the golf course up was massively in favour of the USA and thatโs just the way it is.โ
On that occasion the Europeans suffered a heavy 17-11 defeat at Hazeltine National, but Fleetwood is expecting a much more competitive contest this time after Europe captain Thomas Bjorn selected Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson to bolster his squad.
โI think both teams look great this year,โ he said.
โI know thereโs been a lot of talk about how good the Americans are this year and thereโs no doubt about it theyโve got an unbelievable team. But at the same time, for Europe to be able to pick the four guys that got picked just shows the strength in European golf.
โI honestly think it could be one of the greatest Ryder Cups ever. We do have a really good team spirit this year. Maybe itโs always like that, but itโs my first one so I can only go on that, and weโve got a great bunch of players and I fancy our chances, I really do.โ
