Europe Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn insists if he ever doubted Rory McIlroy he would be out of a job after the Northern Irishman turned his game around on the opening day at Le Golf National.
The four-time major winner was the only player in the morning fourballs not to register a birdie as he and rookie Thorbjorn Olesen were defeated, but he bounced back alongside Ian Poulter in the foursomes with a 4&2 win over Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson.
Heroes of the day, however, were Open champion Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood, who beat the USA’s premier pairing in both sessions; dispatching Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed 3&1 before returning to smash Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas 5&4.
Immediately after his round Bjorn gave Fleetwood just an hour off to celebrate what remained of son Franklin’s first birthday.
But it was Bjorn’s faith in McIlroy, which many questioned after watching him in the morning, that was repaid most.
“I never have any doubt in Rory McIlroy because if I start doubting him then I probably shouldn’t be doing this job,” said the Dane, whose side turned around a 3-1 deficit to lead 5-3 with the Europe’s first foursomes whitewash in the history of the event.
“I believe in him and it was great to see his response today. But that’s more on him. I was never in doubt that I wanted to have him on the golf course this afternoon.
“I had a plan and I stuck to it for this first day, and I’ve had it for a few days.
“Great players when they don’t perform to the standards that they want to have an ability to just go and prove to themselves, they want to put it right, and he did that this afternoon.
“The only thing I said to Rory is ‘We go again’. It was a bad morning. He didn’t play well, and you go again. You go out there and you bring a different type of game.
“But I made it quite clear all along that I’m not in any way qualified to tell Rory McIlroy how to play golf.
“But I’m qualified to lead him in a direction with the people he’s surrounding himself with this week to get good things out of him and he is a guy that only needs very short comments and then he goes again.”
Fleetwood needed no advice from his captain having gelled brilliantly with Molinari, with whom he will play in Saturday’s foursomes against Woods and Reed again.
It was a partnership which worked brilliantly and one both players said they enjoyed.
“Tommy is on his way back to the hotel to spend an hour or so with his son, and that will be nice for him,” Bjorn said.
“That’s a pretty special thing for him and for Clare (Fleetwood’s wife). That’s been agreed a long way in advance that that was going to happen.
“I couldn’t promise Tommy that he was going to play two sessions today so there was a few different ways of doing it.
“Now he’s on his way back to the hotel to have a little bit of time with his family.”
On the success of the Molinari-Fleetwood pairing, Bjorn added: “You’ve got a former French Open champion and the Open champion.
“They just love playing with each other. I think they just have a very special bond and relationship, and they have for a long time, and they love being on the golf course together.”
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