Sunday 2 October 2016 08:49, UK
Paul McGinley reflects on Rory McIlroy's impressive win in the Ryder Cup Friday fourballs and explains why he feels the momentum is with Europe heading in to the weekend at Hazeltine.
Rory McIlroy has a lot of passion for his teammates and he loves playing in Ryder Cups. He has a great affinity with Darren Clarke and he just loves the big occasion, which this was today.
McIlroy just relishes moments like today and once he is mentally engaged, he has just got the ability to produce moments of brilliance - like he did at 16.
"One thing that is certain is that, so far, none of the rookies have let him (Darren Clarke) down."
At one point it looked like Americans were sneak half a point out over those closing holes, and it was so important that they saw them out to get a well-deserved 3&2 victory.
I think we may be two points behind but, a bit like after Ian Poulter's run in Medinah in 2012, we definitely have the momentum.
We were four points behind back then, but we felt such a buzz from Poulter's performance on Saturday afternoon, and I think the Europeans will feel something similar now.
This was a tremendous achievement to come back when they were on the floor from this morning's loss.
We said if they could get 2.5-1.5 it would be great, but they did even better than that. I can't say how great Europe did this afternoon - this was tremendous.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Clarke's pairings pan out on Saturday, but one thing that is certain is that so far none of the rookies have let him down.
Andy Sullivan holed a lot of good putts, Thomas Pieters played tremendously well and Rafa Cabrera Bello also impressed, while there's no doubt Danny Willett will have a factor in the outcome of this Ryder Cup.
I think we're in a good place and psychologically that was so huge for us this afternoon.
