At the 2025 Ryder Cup, World No. 2 Rory McIlroy was at the center of the chaos that unfolded at Bethpage Black, inside the ropes and out. And While McIlroy’s stellar play helped the European team to a dramatic away win, more attention has been paid to misbehaving fans who hurled insults at Rory, his wife and the Europeans all week on Long Island.
McIlroy is tuned in to this reality and explained the “unfortunate thing” about it on Wednesday ahead of the 2025 DP World India Championship.
Rory says he’s been watching Ryder Cup highlights
McIlroy is teeing it up in India for the first time this week, in one of the final events of the DP World Tour season. He currently dominates the DP World Tour’s season-long standings, as he eyes his fourth-straight Race to Dubai title and seventh overall.
It’s also his first time competing since the Ryder Cup, which was an emotional whirlwind for the five-time major champion.
With the exception of much of Sunday’s singles matches, the story on the scorecard at the Ryder Cup was one of European domination. That much was clear for anyone watching the action on TV Friday or Saturday.
But as a primary character in the drama, McIlroy was not able to watch it on TV live. He was busy trying to win his matches.
“Obviously as I’m playing my matches, I’m focused on trying to win my point. You know, you see that the other guys are winning their matches or they are doing well but you don’t realize how well they are playing,” McIlroy said.
However, since the Ryder Cup ended, McIlroy has been able to re-watch the highlights and get a full sense of just how great his team played over the first two days at Bethpage.
“So just over the last two weeks, being able to watch the highlights and just see, especially those first two days, in the foursomes and the four-balls how good European team were,” he revealed on Wednesday. “The Americans would hit it close; we hit it closer. The Americans hole a putt and we hole a putt on top it and it happened every single time.”
But the reigning Masters champion also identified one problem that has been bothering him since the Ryder Cup came to an end.
‘I’d rather play with Ryder Cup mates than against them” Rory at DP World India Championship
McIlroy laments what was lost in post-Ryder Cup coverage
The inexcusable abuse McIlroy and company faced during the three days of competition at Bethpage Black is well known. McIlroy’s emotional reactions in the most heated moments, as well as his and his teammates’ comments in the Ryder Cup winner’s press conference spoke volumes.
And partially because of that, spectators’ bad behavior has dominated Ryder Cup coverage after the event, much like the European team did on the course.
On Wednesday, McIlroy acknowledged as much without directly mentioning the volatile atmosphere at the Ryder Cup.
“I’ve been following the sort of narrative coming out of the Ryder Cup just like everyone else,” he said.
Then he began to explain the downside of that prevailing narrative.
“But unfortunately, I think it takes away from what we focused on which is what an incredible performance it was by the European team.”
He continued by lamenting that people are remembering this year’s Ryder Cup for the “wrong reason,” and that he hopes to change that.
“The unfortunate thing is people aren’t remembering that and they are remembering the week for the wrong reason,” McIlroy explained. “I would like to shift the narrative and focus on how good the European team were and how proud I was to be part of that team to win an away Ryder Cup.”
And win they did. Despite a furious comeback by the U.S. on Sunday, Rory and the Europeans edged out a 15-13 victory, their second in a row. It was also Europe’s sixth win in the last eight Ryder Cups, and ninth win in the last 12.
As for McIlroy, who won the Irish Open in his last pro start, he’ll begin his opening round at the 2025 DP World India Championship on Wednesday night at 9:55 p.m. ET alongside Ryder Cup teammate Viktor Hovland and U.S. Ryder Cupper Ben Griffin.
