Rory McIlroy said players who defected to LIV Golf League likely would have a tough time becoming Ryder Cup captains since they no longer would have strong connections to players in Europe.
As has become a pre-tournament ritual, McIlroy was questioned Wednesday ahead of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in Surrey, England, about progress in an affiliation between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. And reporters also wanted to know his thoughts on LIV players being a part of future Ryder Cup teams, especially as a captain.
Henrik Stenson was removed as captain of the European team for the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome after the Swede moved to LIV in 2022. More recently, Ryder Cup veteran Ian Poulter of England said he’d love a chance to captain the European team one day. Another candidate could be Lee Westwood, who 11 appearances and 24 total points, tied for third in Team Europe history.
“With the guys that left — Poulter, Westwood — how can these young up-and-comers, you know, build a rapport with them when they are never here? You can’t see them,” McIlroy told reporters. “I think that’s a really important part of a Ryder Cup and a Ryder Cup captaincy.”
McIlroy pointed to the efforts made by current Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald to get to know the other players before Team Europe faced the United States in Italy last year by monitoring happenings on the DP World Tour, especially. Donald will lead the European team again next September at the 2025 Ryder Cup at the Bethpage Black Course in New York.
“You look at what Luke has done the last few years. He’s really made an effort. … He played in the Czech Republic. He was in Switzerland,” McIlroy said. “He’s making an effort to be around the players and make the players feel comfortable with him, the up-and-comers that haven’t had a chance yet to be on a team or trying to make a team.”
McIlroy acknowledged Poulter’s pedigree makes him worthy of being a Ryder Cup captain but said of LIV Golf defectors, “… I just think with the current state of where everything is, you need someone that’s around and showing their face as much as they can. Right now, that honestly just can’t be them because they are elsewhere.”
