Team Europe's Sepp Straka insists there are no split loyalties within his family as he prepares to make his Ryder Cup debut in Rome, with even his American mother cheering on the home side.
The 30-year-old was born in Vienna to an Austrian father and American mother and spent the first 14 years of his life in Europe before moving to America.
But there are no mixed emotions about representing Europe, with the whole family fully invested in Luke Donald's Team at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club.
The class of 2023 🇪🇺🏆#TeamEurope pic.twitter.com/pyQwiPreJ0
— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 26, 2023
He said: "I feel like I've grown up kind of split. You know, my mom is American. Spent a lot of time in the States. When I was 14, I moved to the States.
"But I've always felt really close to my Austrian heritage. My dad is Austrian. Always made sure I spent a lot of time going back.
"Yeah, if anything, it's allowed me to spend more time in Austria, which is always great. And yeah, get back to see a lot of friends and family."
When asked if there were any mixed feelings about playing for Europe against the U.S. Team, Straka added: "Not really, no.
"My mom, who is American, has been wearing an Austria hat all last week while she was in Austria.
"Yeah, I think they are all Team Europe. Even my mom, who grew up in the States, is a hundred per cent American. She spent 24 years in Austria. She's fallen in love with the country, and I think she's probably just as Austrian as a lot of Austrians are."
Straka's teammate Viktor Hovland has hailed the strength of Scandinavian golf after watching six players from the region help Europe retain the Solheim Cup last weekend.
Norwegian Hovland, who is joined by Sweden's Ludvig Åberg and Dane Nicolai Højgaard on the European Team this week, said: "Seeing the European Solheim Cup team had five Swedes on that team, that's pretty cool to see, even though I'm Norwegian. It's pretty cool to see that a lot of Scandinavians are doing so well.
"Obviously they have a great culture for golf there. The Swedes, they have a lot of players on the men's tour. I just think they have a great culture there."
Rookie Åberg has made the fastest transition ever from amateur golf to the Ryder Cup after only turning professional in June.
The 23-year-old admitted he would not have believed it if he was told he would make Donald's Team earlier in the year.
Asked when he started believing that making the Team was a realistic prospect, he said: "It was probably towards the late part of the summer when I started to play well.
"Got to play with Luke myself over the summer, so kind of got to start a relationship with him.
"For me, all I tried to do was play good golf. If someone would have told me a couple of months ago that I would be here playing a Ryder Cup, I probably wouldn't believe them.
"It's really cool and it's a dream come true for me to be here, and looking forward to the next couple of days."
