That Rory McIlroy-Joe LaCava spat? There’s 1 more thing to add

Rory McIlroy says he and Joe LaCava had a drink. 

And a talk. 

And that’s apparently that from their Ryder Cup kerfuffle. 

Had it been 18th greengate? Or parking lotgate? It was somethinggate. A recap: Late late last month, at the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone, fans had been waving hats at Patrick Cantlay, who wasn’t wearing one, and the reasons for not are dependent on whom you ask. (Did he want to get paid for playing at the biennial event? Did he not want to get a tan line for his upcoming wedding? We may never know for sure.) Then, on the second day of play, in the afternoon, the American team of Cantlay and partner Wyndham Clark played McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick of Europe. And Cantlay dropped a lengthy putt on the 18th.

Then, LaCava, Cantlay’s caddie, started waving his hat. He got close to McIlroy, who had yet to putt. Then there words. Then McIlroy and Fitzpatrick missed putts, and the American duo won. Then there were more words. 

Then McIlroy got into a shouting match in the parking lot. Jim “Bones” Mackay, the caddie for American Justin Thomas, intervened. 

Then that ignited McIlroy. On the final day of the event, McIlroy defeated Sam Burns, and the Europeans won the Cup. Then McIlroy talked about it all. He said LaCava’s actions on the green were disrespectful. Then everyone else talked about it. 

Then McIlroy and LaCava talked themselves, according to a BBC story published Saturday. 

News

And they had a drink.

And now?

“We’re all friends now,” McIlroy said.

He was talking at the Formula 1 event in Austin, Texas — he’s recently invested in a team. McIlroy said at some point on Sunday night at the Ryder Cup, during the European celebration, he and LaCava met up. 

“Things happen in the heat of the moment; tensions were high,” McIlroy told the BBC. “Joe LaCava came into the European team room on the Sunday night and had a drink and a chat. I’ve had a great relationship with Joe over the years when he caddied for Tiger [Woods] and that wasn’t going to change.

“For me, the incident happened, I purposely didn’t want to meet anyone on the Sunday morning because I wanted what had happened to fuel me for that day. My whole focus was let’s make sure Europe win the Ryder Cup and then we will sort all the other stuff out afterwards.

“And it’s all fine.” 

Editor’s note: To read the entire BBC story — which includes McIlroy’s thoughts on his Formula 1 team — please click here. 

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.

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