MEDINAH, Ill. – European Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal is honest to a fault. It’s in his blood. Ask him a question, he’ll answer it; he doesn’t care whether you like the answer.
The longtime Ryder Cup stalwart intends to use that same trait Friday night when addressing his team, which finds itself in a 5-3 hole after Day 1 at Medinah.
“We will address what happened today,” Olazabal said. “I’m going to make it clear to the boys that they need to step it up. They need to play better golf. Simple as that.”
Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell were 1-1 together, although they nearly blew the morning match after a 3-up advantage and looked uninspired in an afternoon dusting by Keegan Bradley and Phil Mickelson. Lee Westwood lost the morning match with Francesco Molinari, then didn’t contribute at all in an afternoon match with Nicolas Colsaerts, although Europe managed the victory.
Then there is Martin Kaymer, who is by far Europe’s biggest liability. He says he found a spark in his game recently that would allow him to flourish this week, but no one was buying it. Kaymer was paired with Justin Rose in afternoon fourballs and failed to make a birdie. They lost the match, 3 and 2, to Dustin Jonson and Matt Kuchar.
“He’s trying a little too hard,” Olazabal said about Kaymer. “I think he needs to loosen up a bit. We will get him loose tonight.”