Euro Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke labels his team underdogs

The European Ryder Cup team has won eight of the last 10 biennial matches.

Their only losses in that stretch have come on American soil, thanks to the Miracle at Brookline in 1999 and a Paul Azinger-led trouncing in 2008 at Valhalla.

The Ryder Cup returns to American soil next fall, with the Americans looking to turn the embarrassment and dissension from the 2014 matches at Gleneagles into a Task Force-inspired win and a bit of sweet revenge for second-time captain Davis Love III at Hazeltine National in Minnesota.

European captain Darren Clarke hopes to spoil those dreams and continue his side’s dominance. However, he’s couching his team — at least, right now — as the underdogs.

Current standings of @RyderCupUSA are very strong with @Love3d leading them. We will be underdogs but away matches are always hard! #fight

— Darren Clarke (@DarrenClarke60) December 28, 2015

This is a common European tactic, making it seem like they’re not as talented as their American foes, hoping to inspire their players to rise to the occasion yet again. Since it works, why deviate and give the Americans some potential bulletin board material? Every American who will make the U.S. team, however, knows the generation-long bad history of the Americans and the Ryder Cup. It is a motivating factor, certainly.

Maybe that’s why former PGA of America president Ted Bishop, who hired Tom Watson as a disastrous captain for Gleneagles, called out Clarke for singing the inaccurate refrain.