McIlroy speaks harsh truth in Rome

ROME, ITALY - OCTOBER 04: Luke Donald of England poses for a photograph with the Ryder Cup Trophy during the Ryder Cup 2023 Year to Go Media Event on October 04, 2022 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Rory McIlroy is well-known for speaking his mind but much has changed since he dropped a Ryder Cup bombshell at the Irish Open at Baltray in 2009.

Asked about his potential Ryder Cup debut at Celtic Manor in 2010, he said:  "The Ryder Cup, it's a great spectacle for golf, but an exhibition at the end of the day and it should be there to be enjoyed.

“In the big scheme of things, it's not that important of an event for me… Obviously I'll try my best for the team. But you know, I'm not going to go running around fist-pumping.”

Just 16 months later he was telling Tiger Woods to go out at No 3 in the singles, so badly did he want to beat the greatest player of his generation.

Now playing his seventh Ryder Cup, all has changed in McIlroy’s world. With Woods recovering from serious injury, he’s now the biggest star in the game and a multiple major winner. “A legend” as Justin Rose said here yesterday.

His comments might appear to be off the cuff but when you know in advance the questions that will almost certainly be thrown your way, you spend a lot of time composing your answers in your head.

It’s remarkable, in fact, how well McIlroy puts his point of view across in interviews these days because he prepares.

While he’s also done thousands of casual chats with reporters over the years, not to mention TV interviews, there are 1,302 McIlroy transcripts online.

He was scheduled to speak in the media centre at 9 am local time yesterday but didn’t appear until 25 minutes later for the scheduled 15-minute press conference expected by all 24 players this week.

Unlike many of the lesser stars, McIlroy had already spent a full hour attending to TV before he even got to the media centre, where he was met outside by reporters from BBC NI, RTÉ Radio and RAI for another 10 minutes of interviews before eventually getting into the big tent.

He’d heard all the questions before but his reply when asked if he’d miss the LIV Golf absentees such as Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood — he wasn’t asked about the original captain Henrik Stenson who promised not to got to LIV and did so anyway, losing the captaincy — he was devastating.

“I mean, it's certainly a little strange not having them around,” McIlroy said. “But I think this week of all weeks, it's going to hit home with them that, you know, they are not here, and I think they are going to miss being here more than we're missing them.

“I'm not saying that that's like -- it's just more I think this week is a realisation that the decision that they made has led to not being a part of this week, and that's tough.

“The landscape in golf is ever-changing and more dynamic, and we'll see what happens and whether they will be part of it in the future.

“I always thought leading up to this week is when it's going to hit home that they are not going to be here.”

McIlroy’s comments could well be interpreted as follows.

“You’ve made your bed, now lie in it.”

They were remarkably even-tempered given that he thrust himself into the centre of the LIV debate from the start, saying he was unhappy with the source of the money and that he wanted to be on the right side of history on this issue.

Having reached out to Greg Norman, despite their differences, to thank him for his help after his own Masters meltdown in 2011, he lost patience with the Shark shortly afterwards when he accused McIlroy being “brain-washed” by the PGA Tour.

As he told Paul Kimmage in the Sunday Independent, “I’m like, ‘For f**k’s sake!’ We’ve had this really nice back and forth and he says that about me. I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to make it my business now to be as much of a pain in his arse as possible.’”

He’s hurting.

As he told GOLF’s SubPar podcast recently, “I hate that LIV fractured the game so much. That’s the thing for me that really pissed me off. Hopefully, we can all get back together and make the professional game a bit more harmonious so that we can all compete against each other more often instead of the four times a year at the major championships.”

They say the Ryder Cup is the one week when the players who may normally have nothing more than a nodding acquaintance between Ryder Cups, become bosom buddies.

Shane Lowry is now closer to him than ever and the Holywood star hopes he gets the chance to renew his partnership with the big Offaly man after they lost in their only appearance together at Whistling Straits.  Time will tell on that one.

What’s more fascinating about McIlroy this week is his quest, not for Ryder Cup revenge, but redemption.

He ended up in tears in Wisconsin after contributing just one point to the cause in a record defeat but that Sunday was the catalyst for nearly two years of stellar play and he’s clearly keen to set the record straight this week.

“I wouldn't say revenge, I think more like redemption for ourselves,” he said. “You know, there's a few guys that were on that team that felt like we certainly could have got more out of ourselves. And hopefully this time around we do.”

Unlike the LIV golfers, who took the money instead of looking out for their tour family, McIlroy’s comments on the absentees were designed to remind them they are now outcasts, even if the new deal with the PIF eventually offers them a way back.

The motivational messages sent by friends and family members that had Shane Lowry, Jon Rahm and others in tears this week, are the best indicator of that bond.

McIlroy’s message came from his caddie Harry Diamond, who has been a friend since was a small child.

“Harry did my one just sort of bringing us through our journey from when we were kids being at Holywood Golf Club when we were seven years old, on the putting green, all the way through playing amateur golf together,” he said in that BBC NI interview. “And now, we're doing our third Ryder Cup together and everything that we've done in between that time. And it's incredible.

|We're all trying to play for our teammates, and our captain and our vice captains but to receive a message like that and to realise how many more people that you're representing by being here, it's really, really cool.

“The other guy's got messages that meant just as much to them. And there were a lot of tears shed on Monday night, which was really cool, just how much it means to us. How much it means to everyone, that's been a part of our journey that we're here this week.”

Seve Ballesteros is a big part of the theme ethos this week with Ryder Cup shirt a 13th-man presence in the locker room.

“You know, there’s a romantic element to the Ryder Cup, in terms of Seve and how much he meant to the team. We've rallied a lot around Seve this week in terms of trying to play like him and have an attitude like him.

“He's a huge part of the European Ryder Cup team and he always will be. We just tap into that quite a lot this week and it's incredibly helpful.”