After overturning years of United States dominance, Europe Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley has said that his proud team would embrace being the favourites when the 40th edition of the golf tournament gets underway at Gleneagles next week.
McGinley said that as much as the European team is the favourite, they are proud of it and embrace it. He added that they are under no illusions the task ahead of them is strong and they are going to have to play very well if they are going to win the Ryder Cup.
But, McGinley said that being favourites is not something they are going to worry about and they are embracing it and enjoying that they have come so far to be favourites going in against the might of the Americans, Sport24 reported.
It is only the second time that Scotland, the home of golf, has hosted the world's greatest match play battle and the last time, 41 years ago at Muirfield, the U.S. made it 17 wins in 20 matches to cement their domination of the biennial competition.
It is now Europe, formerly Britain and Ireland, who go into the event from September 26-28 as odds-on favourites after winning seven of the last nine contests and having not lost on home soil since 1993.
Confident McGinley also said that his 12-strong team would wear the favourites tag well.
The Irishman said that he had lunch with John Jacobs, forefather of the European Tour, last month and there were tears in his eyes when he talked about how far they, and the European Tour, have come in Ryder Cups in terms of going into matches now as favourites.
McGinley said that the strength they have in the European Tour is something they should be proud of, adding that they have the number one player in the world, the most exciting prospect in the game, in Rory McIlroy.
