Rory McIlroy has become the ‘cornerstone’ of Europe in Ryder Cup

Europe's Rory McIlroy speaks during a news conference at the Ryder Cup golf tournament, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, on the Bethpage Black golf course, in Farmingdale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Rory McIlroy understood all that the Ryder Cup means three days before he ever hit a shot. As a 21-year-old rookie in 2010, he was in the team room at Celtic Manor in Wales with the rest of the Europeans. On the phone was Seve Ballesteros, the soul of Team Europe, dying from a brain tumour.

“I look around and the majority of the team is crying as Seve is talking to us,” McIlroy recalled Wednesday ahead of a soggy day of practice at Bethpage Black.

“And I’m like, that’s it. That’s the embodiment of what the European Ryder Cup team is,” he said. “That conference call with Seve in 2010 was the moment for me.”

The player who once referred to the Ryder Cup as an exhibition, as “not that important an event for me,” as a competition that wouldn’t make him run around throwing fists pumps, is now the strongest voice and the only European with the career Grand Slam.

“He’s obviously a great player and very skilled, very experienced,” Viktor Hovland said. ”But also he carries a lot of weight in the team room.

“He’s very comforting to have there. He makes everyone in the team room feel good. And I think he brings out the best in everyone in there.”

The question is what McIlroy will bring out from the New York crowd when the Ryder Cup gets started Friday at the public course with a reputation for being rowdy.

McIlroy has gone from being extremely popular to occasionally polarizing over the last several years. He went from being the boldest opponent of Saudi-funded LIV Golf to pushing the hardest for the rival circuits to come together.

After winning the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, he shirked media responsibilities at two majors, skipped the Memorial without a courtesy call to host Jack Nicklaus and said at the U.S. Open, “I’ve earned the right to do whatever I want.”

He is a big figure in golf, a big part of Team Europe and certainly the most experienced player. This is eighth Ryder Cup since making his debut in the exhibition at Wales. His record is 16-13-4, certainly not the best among European stalwarts, but what matters more is being on five winning teams against two losses.

Jon Rahm saw a shift in McIlroy’s presence at the last Ryder Cup in Rome, a week marked not only by McIlroy’s personal-best 4-1-0 record, but his feisty spirit when he mixed it up in a parking lot still peeved over the behavior by Patrick Cantlay’s caddie.

“He’s the biggest name we have in Europe. He’s the better player we have in Europe. And he’s definitely the biggest presence,” two-time major champion Jon Rahm said. “That’s his role now. He’s gone from being an incredibly good player to a great Ryder Cup player to now being, I would say, the cornerstone that Team Europe needs.”

He can lead by his play and inspire by his emotions. McIlroy still doesn’t see himself in a position to dispense advice, particularly when it comes to handling a hostile crowd.

He was screaming at the top of his lungs and cupping his ears to egg on the Minnesota crowd during an epic singles match with Patrick Reed at Hazeltine in 2016. He was in tears at Whistling Straits in 2021 after a poor performance by himself and Team Europe.

And then came Rome, where he was the catalyst.

“I’m very lucky. I get a lot of support pretty much everywhere I go when I play golf, and it’s going to feel a little different for me this week. But that’s to be expected,” McIlroy said. “I feel like at times in the Ryder Cup, I have engage too much with the crowd. But then there’s time where I haven’t engaged enough. So it’s really just trying to find the balance of using that energy from the crowd to fuel your performance.”

He had the support of practically the entire golf world when he won a Masters green jacket in April. Now he goes after a 17-inch gold trophy to share with a team. Both are important to McIlroy in different ways.

Ian Poulter is known primarily for his Ryder Cup heroics. Ballesteros, while a five-time major champion, is the reason continental Europe was invited to join the British Isles in 1979 for what is now the modern era of the Ryder Cup.

McIlroy is not that and might never be. He is Europe’s No. 1. He is a Grand Slam champion. That doesn’t make this week any less special.

“I still want to play well for myself. I’ve always said I’m proudest of my individual achievements in the game,” McIlroy said. “But the most memorable moments and the most fun I’ve had in my career have been at Ryder Cup. So they are a little bit different.”

He also believes winning the Ryder Cup on U.S. soil, which Europe has done four times but not since 2012, “would be one of the greatest accomplishments of my career for sure.”

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Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press