Wyndham Clark: I want to prove I’m better than Rory McIlroy at Ryder Cup

Wyndham Clark wants to take down Rory McIlroy on his Ryder Cup debut and prove he is a better player than the four-time major champion.

The US Open champion beat McIlroy by a shot win his first major title at the Los Angeles Country Club back in June – and now sees the Northern Irishman as his ideal Sunday singles opponent on his Ryder Cup debut.

Clark is one of four debutants in Zach Johnson’s US side heading to Rome, but the world No.10 certainly isn’t short of confidence as he prepares to tee it up at Marco Simone.

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When asked on the Golf Channel if he’d like another showdown with McIlroy, Clark said: “That is exactly who I want, I would love to play Rory.”

“I have the utmost respect for Rory – he is one of our great ambassadors of our game. He is obviously one of the best of all time and he is still going so he can be that. I have tons of respect for Rory and because of that respect, I also want to beat him. I like to think I am better than him and I want to prove that.”

Clark added: “I would love to play Rory, I think that would be really fun for the fans too. Long-ball hitters. We have similar games in that respect. It would be a little bit of David and Goliath. I am hoping to get that chance. Regardless of who I play, I am really excited. But that one would be a lot of fun.”

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It’s fair to say that Clark has no fear whatsoever ahead of his first time in the stars and stripes. He also fancies Europe’s other big-hitters, Viktor Hovland and Jon Rahm, as opponents for Sunday’s singles battle.

“One guy I would love to have a piece of, because the one loss I had in college was to him, is Viktor Hovland,” Clark said. “He clipped me on the 18th hole. If there is any competition or anyone I would like another chance at, it would be Viktor.

“And Jon Rahm. I live in Arizona and so does Jon. We play together – there is always trash talk and even when we are having a friendly match we want to make sure we don’t lose to each other, even if we lose to the other guys in the group. We don’t want to lose to each other. Any of those guys would be a lot of fun to play against.”