Rory McIlroy recently visited the “Stick to Football” podcast, where hosts Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Jill Scott, Ian Wright and Roy Keane peppered McIlroy with Ryder Cup questions for more than half of McIlroy’s hour-plus appearance. And if you thought you’ve already heard everything there was to be said about the various goings-on at Bethpage, here are 10 fresh pieces of McIlroy commentary from the group’s conversation.
Europe’s continuity
McIlroy explained to the group how important it is to get off to a good start in the team portion of the Ryder Cup, which Europe has historically been able to do. Neville wanted to know why.
“We have a lot of continuity within our team,” McIlroy said. “Same captain, same vice captains. I feel like there’s a lot of turnover on the American team year to year.
“Over the years I would say that Europe, to win the Ryder Cup, have had to be more cohesive and more together because, on paper, [the Americans] are stronger, they’re deeper, all the way down the line,” he continued. “But we outperform our baseline pretty much every time we go and play. This year, even more so.”
‘The worst feeling’
Sunday singles was uncomfortable for McIlroy, who played in the fourth match out and lost to Scottie Scheffler on the final hole. The Americans came close to mounting an historic comeback, but ultimately fell short.
“As a sportsperson, that 90 minutes where you’ve finished your match and you’re watching the other guys come in, and you have no control of the situation, it’s like the worst feeling,” McIlroy said.
Europe was hoping for a record-matching day on Sunday
Heading into Sunday singles with a big lead, McIlroy said that Europe was hoping to cruise to a record-matching winning score.
“[The Americans] beat us by a record margin in 2021,” he said. “So our thing was, all right, let’s beat them by the same score line. That was our motivation. Obviously that didn’t materialize.”
Team Europe considered keeping their partners off property
One of the Ryder Cup’s biggest storylines was the verbal abuse that the European team endured from fans onsite — particularly McIlroy and his wife, Erica. When the topic of fan behavior came up during the group’s chat, McIlroy revealed that it has been suggested that the team’s partners spend time in New York City instead of onsite at Bethpage.
“We knew going to New York that we were gonna get a lot of stick, a lot of abuse,” McIlroy said. “I was saying, like, why don’t the girls just go into New York City for the week, have a good time, we’ll see you on Sunday night? Because we knew what was going to happen.
“But in fairness to them, they were like, no, we want to be out there, we want to support you, which is really nice.
“My thing was, I just didn’t want, if one of the partners heard something that they didn’t like, that then that affected the mood in the team or in the team room, so I just didn’t want them to bring that into the team room at all,” he continued.
“And in fairness to all the wives and partners, they didn’t do that.”
The Bethpage crowds were the worst Rory’s ever experienced
“2016, we played Ryder Cup in Minnesota, and I thought that was [the worst],” McIlroy said. “I compare this year to 2016, and like 2016 was nothing compared to some of the stuff we heard.”
Rory expected more crowd control from Keegan Bradley
“Keegan and I have talked about this,” McIlroy said. “I think you have to play into the home field advantage, absolutely. But I think, during the competition on Friday night and Saturday night, after the stuff that we heard on the course, I think there was an opportunity for either Keegan or some of the teammates to be like, you know, let’s just calm down here, let’s try to play this match in the right spirit.
“And some of them did that, but obviously Keegan had the biggest platform of the week of being the captain, and I feel like he could have said something on that Friday or Saturday night and he didn’t,” he continued. “But in fairness, Sunday was a little bit better, it seemed like the rhetoric was sort of calmed down a bit.”
Ryder Cup pressure
Is there more pressure in team events than individual tournaments? Jill Scott wanted to know.
“Absolutely,” McIlroy replied. “And I probably struggled with that my first two Ryder Cups. “I didn’t play with freedom, because I didn’t want to make a mistake or let others down.
“It honestly took me my third Ryder Cup in 2014 to actually feel like I could play like myself and not have that fear of letting the team down or, you know, because as an individual sports person, you never really have that.”
Emotional aftermath with opposing players
Is there any post-Ryder Cup beef between players?
“There is a coldness for a few weeks or months after the Ryder Cup,” McIlroy said. “But I think because it happens every two years, you know, we see each other every week, I feel like a lot of the bad stuff is forgotten. These are shared experiences and like, yeah, we have disagreements or there’s things that I probably didn’t like that some of the Americans did … I’ve had chats with them before about things, saying, look, I really didn’t like what you did there or, you know, whatever it is.
But that’s all walks of life, you know, it doesn’t just happen with people you’re playing against. You have to be upfront and honest and at least be open to communicating to people and say like, look, I don’t want anything like, bad between us here, and let’s just sort it out and move on.”
Foursomes strategy
McIlroy praised Luke Donald’s leadership, and the analytics incorporated into Europe’s team pairings.
“The most strategic format of golf is foursomes,” McIlroy said. “And if you look at our foursomes record over the last two Ryder Cups, we’ve played 16 foursomes matches, and I think it’s like 13-3 [Europe]. So we’re killing them on that.”
Hitting the wall during Sunday singles
McIlroy went 3-1-1 at Bethpage, with his Sunday singles loss to Scottie Scheffler the only blemish on his record. In retrospect, McIlroy said the mental fatigue of the week finally caught up to him.
“I felt OK, I’d say for the front nine on Sunday,” he said. “And then I just, I felt like I hit a wall. I completely lost the feeling of my swing.
“I was trying to hit, say, 5-yard fades. I was trying to hit it left or right, and the ball was coming out and curving 15 yards right to left. And I was just like, what? It hasn’t happened to me like that.
“You’re used to seeing the ball come out in a certain window, a certain shape, a certain trajectory, and this, I just, I felt like I was making a swing to hit a fade, and I just was not, and then at that point I just had to play with it.”
For more from McIlroy — including a deep-dive on his Masters win and clinching the career grand slam, check out the full episode of Stick to Football. You can listen here, or watch the episode on YouTube below.
As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her original interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.
