Graeme McDowell believes US' fallout in Ryder Cup will ensure 'fairly epic' tournament in 2016

Johannesburg: Northern Ireland golfer Graeme McDowell has predicted that the bitter fall-out from the United States ' Ryder Cup loss to Europe would make the 2016 tournament an even more gripping contest.

American stalwart Phil Mickelson turned on team captain Tom Watson following Europe's 16 1/2-11 1/2 victory at Gleneagles earlier this month, which McDowell felt broke an unwritten rule.

The US PGA has since convened an 11-strong taskforce to evaluate the Americans' approach to the Ryder Cup and McDowell believes that Europe would therefore have to face doubly determined opponents in two years' time, Sport24 reported.

McDowell said that he thinks there are positive and negative connotations there, on the eve of his defence of the Volvo World Match Play Championship at The London Club.

The Northern Irishman added that he thinks the negative being that maybe it takes too much emphasis off the European victory and places a little bit more on the US failure.

And, McDowell also said that he thinks the positive being the Americans' renewed effort to win the Ryder Cup, and that can only be very, very good for the tournament. He added that it just means two years' time is going to be fairly epic and he wants to be there for sure.