Europe’s Ryder Cup team have embarked on their journey to America to defend The Ryder Cup at Valhalla Golf Club.

Seven members of Team Europe, along with Captain Nick Faldo and his assistant José Maria Olazábal flew on a specially chartered Virgin Atlantic flight from Heathrow Airport in London to Kentucky this morning.

Padraig Harrington, Søren Hansen, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Robert Karlsson, Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood and Oliver Wilson were the men flanking Faldo, with Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson already in America.

Sporting casual brown jackets and trousers with light shirts, designed by Italian designer label Canali, Faldo and his men cut relaxed figures and the Captain was certainly in good spirits ahead of what promises to be an intense week of action.

Faldo confirmed he already had some strong thoughts in place on how his pairings will work out. He said: “Obviously I’ve been studying that for the last couple of weeks. Since the Team was confirmed I’ve been talking to the guys, I’ve already done a couple of formulas in my mind.

“I think I’m in a fortunate position. Right now I’ve got 12 guys playing great. As we all know I play eight, four have got to be rested and we’ll see how that works out, but I already have some good thoughts up my sleeve.”

The European Captain was also buoyed by the performances of those players who competed in The European Tour’s Mercedes-Benz Championship over the weekend with Karlsson winning the event and Hansen and Jiménez both finishing in the top ten in Cologne.

“That is really great, for Robert to go and win, all the guys played well,” he added. “All the guys played really well to hold their place in the Team which was only a couple of weeks ago so I’ve just got to put the reins on them and just get them out there.”
C/O European Tour

Dermot Synnott
GOLFING Magazine
The Clubhouse leader

As you all know Europe go head to head again with team USA in Valhalla on September 19th – 21st in an effort to retain the Ryder Cup. We would love to hear your views and predictions. Especially those of American bloggers.