Paul McGinley was brought into the Ryder Cup camp as a consultant, knowing eyes to augment skipper Luke Donald’s preparations for Bethpage Black. McGinley led the European team to victory in 2014 and is considered a details man, an early devotee of statistical analysis and bespoke planning.

Donald has taken that story on, invested heavily in stats, built data sets on all his players, the balls they use, their efficacy off the tee, around the greens, on the green, their favoured distances to the pin, shot shapes, launch angles, personalities, preferences, how they gel as a group and potential playing partners.

No European team has been this prepared for what Donald has identified as the toughest place to come, the raucous playground of irreverent New Yorkers, a volatile crowd more readi

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