LONDON: Ryder Cup captains Davis Love III and Darren Clarke need to have the courage of their convictions and live or die by their own decisions when they clash in September, US team psychologist Bob Rotella told AFP.
Rotella, who is part of the Love-led American team for this year's edition at Hazeltine National in Minnesota from September 30 to October 2, said the captains need to turn a deaf ear to all opinions coming their way.
"The pressure on the captains in taking their decisions is enormous," said Rotella.
"My feelings are: 'yes, you can listen to other people but remember if you take it and lose, it's only your name that is going down in the history books, not theirs'."
Rotella, who has previously advised Clarke and major winner Padraig Harrington, said his biggest challenge is adjusting the non-playing captain's mind to organising a team.
"It's an intense challenge for both of them. You spend your whole life playing for yourself and thinking about yourself and then suddenly you have to think of other players and forming them into a team," he said.
Rotella, who has written more than 10 books on golf and psychology, said the captains' choice of pairings was crucial and had as much to do with the psychological make-up of the players as their own form.
"No question the selection of the pairings makes a big, big difference," said Rotella.
"You need someone who is playing well. But if his partner is not, he can be good at keeping up the spirits of the other.
"You also require someone you feel can pick themselves up after losing and go out and cheer on the next group, rather than sit in their room and reflect on their loss."
Pairings in the Ryder Cup have gone drastically wrong in the past.
Rotella recalled Hal Sutton picking Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson -- the top two players in the world at the time -- at the 2004 Ryder Cup.
"Hal's feeling was pretty logical to pair the two best players in the world together," said Rotella, speaking on behalf of Standard Life Investments, one of the partners of the Ryder Cup.
"Obviously the downside was that if the Europeans beat them, which they did, it gave them an enormous boost. You make a decision and you have to live with it. If it had been a success Sutton would have been a genius."
Rotella believes it is a myth the Americans are a collection of individuals and the Europeans win more often because they embrace the team ethic.
"I haven't seen that in the locker room," he said. "They're (the Americans) very close but the difference is Europe can put two players together from the same country and that creates a natural bond.
"On the American side, you don't get two guys from New York State being paired together, it doesn't have quite the same resonance.
"But it is a nonsense that the US players travel alone and don't like each other."
Rotella says the atmosphere between the two teams is good despite the fierce battle over three days.
"We all understand it's fun but competitive," he said. "They're all friends. But it's like playing your brother, you still want to kick his butt."
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