RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: Time for Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy to raise their game at the Ryder Cup… the numbers from Luke Donald’s big dogs show they need more bite if Europe are to prevail

• Rahm has a 56 per cent win ratio at the Ryder Cup, with McIlroy behind on 50
• Donald was up in the 70s while Sergio Garcia was among those in the 60s
• The numbers show they need to up their game at the upcoming Ryder Cup  

The question seemed to catch Jon Rahm a little off guard on Tuesday night. It was about the numbers, which beyond all the words and brouhaha of golf tend to be the currency of greatest value in his line of work.

It is that kind of game — no pictures on scorecards, as they say. Not much room for nuance in a domain where, ultimately, what you sign for is what you are worth. And that has raised an interesting line of thought at this Ryder Cup, because some of Europe’s numbers tell tricky stories.

It was Paul McGinley, the winning captain from 2014 and a compelling analyst, who raised the point in these pages a week ago: are the biggest names in Luke Donald’s team producing numbers in keeping with their talent? Do the big dogs need a bit more bite?

This being McGinley, he had done the research. ‘We lost by 10 points at Whistling Straits last time,’ he said. ‘Rahm has got a 56 per cent win ratio, Rory’s got 50 per cent. Those need to be improved. The likes of Colin Montgomerie, Sergio Garcia, all those guys are up in the 60s. Luke was up in the 70s, so they’ve got to raise up.

‘Viktor Hovland has 20 per cent. Then the middle order guys as well — Matt Fitzpatrick has zero, Tyrrell Hatton has got 36 per cent, Shane Lowry has got 33. Everybody’s got to raise their game and the top players in particular.’

Jon Rahm (left) and Rory McIlroy (right) have struggled to impress at past Ryder Cups

Luke Donald will need his big players to step up at the Ryder Cup if they are to prevail

Spelled out like that, it is a solid point and one that was put to Rahm in a tent adjacent to the putting green. ‘I’m not quite sure how to answer that,’ he said. ‘I don’t think I need to do anything different to what I’ve done in the past, but yeah, I think it’s my role to go out there and try to win as much as I can.

‘That’s sort of implying that I haven’t stepped up, so I really don’t know how to answer that. But yeah, in a sense it’s usually the leaders of a team that have to go out there and show a little bit more, getting those points. I really don’t know how to answer that question, sorry.’

After a little more nudging, the world No 3 would add: ‘I can go 0-5 and if the team wins I’ll be really happy. As long as we win, I don’t care. As long as we get to 14½ points, what I do doesn’t really matter.’

McIlroy has previously spoken a little defensively on the subject, too. He has played six previous Ryder Cup, picking up 14 points from a possible 28. An element of that was skewed by the traumas of Whistling Straits, where his one point from four triggered tears and some soul-searching, but the digits sit uneasily with the calibre of his game.

The same could be said of Rahm, even if his record looks better in the detail than the figures – he beat Tiger Woods in the singles in 2018, and at Whistling Straits in 2021 he and Sergio Garcia beat the gilded pairing of Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. Indeed, his tally of 3.5 from four was the best of the Europeans by a street.

But, again, he is not yet hitting the ratios noted by McGinley, and that shortfall takes on added significance when it is set against the wider make-up of Donald’s team in Rome – it is a group that more than ever needs to get the best from its upper order.

Through McIlroy, Rahm and Viktor Hovland, Donald can call on three of the top four in the world. But with a collective average age of 30, and four rookies, it is the youngest and least experienced side sent out by a European captain since 1987, and the depth of the respective teams is best illustrated by the quality of those who were left out. 

McIlroy is hoping for a better Ryder Cup after picking up 14 points from a possible 28 points in the past

Numbers don’t tell the full picture but it’s clear that Europe’s big dogs need more bite

Keegan Bradley didn’t make the cut for Zach Johnson and he is a major winner who won on the PGA Tour this season; Dustin Johnson went five from five in 2021.

For Europe, the list of those left behind was not nearly so garlanded – Adrian Meronk is a fine player but he is not Dustin Johnson. To see a US team with established pairings – Spieth and Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele stand out – and strong individual records makes this match a daunting prospect, even with allowances for home advantage and American travel sickness.

Which only serves to support the view that the heavy lifting must be done by the likes of Rahm, McIlroy, Hovland and a middle order that has not delivered nearly enough on talent – the failure of Fitzpatrick to get a single point from two Cups is utterly baffling.

Even if numbers don’t always tell the full truth, they never outright lie. As McGinley said, it is time to raise the game.

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