Called to a press conference this Thursday starting at 8:45 a.m. local time (2:45 p.m. in France), Rory McIlroy once again delivered brilliant and insightful responses. Asked at what point in his already very long career, the Northern Irishman realized that the Ryder Cup was a different kind of competition, he shared a "significance" moment, a "decisive" act for him.
Rory McIlroy, results
Rory McIlroy has collected 18 points in 33 matches for Team Europe in the Ryder Cup, with 16 wins, 13 losses, and 4 draws. A five-time winner in seven Ryder Cups played between 2010 and 2023, including once on American soil (at Medinah in 2012), the Briton, an undisputed pillar of Team Europe, shared an anecdote from his 2010 Ryder Cup appearance at Celtic Manor in a press conference this Thursday. A founding act that also undoubtedly explains the current world No. 2's boundless commitment to this biennial competition.
After a few standard questions, notably concerning his unique experience of winning a Ryder Cup in the United States and the advice he gave his young teammates throughout his last fifteen years with the European team, one of them seemed to have struck a chord with the Northern Irishman. "Do you remember your first Ryder Cup in 2010? Was there a moment when you realized it was different from anything you'd experienced before?"
"I remember Seve (Ballesteros) was sick, and we invited him to one of those conference calls we did back then," emphasized Rory McIlroy. "He was talking to the team, and we were all in the meeting room." It was a Wednesday or Thursday night, I don't remember exactly. Around me, most of the team was crying while Seve was talking to us. That's when I thought, 'This is it. This is the very embodiment of the European Ryder Cup team.' I think it was that moment, that conference call with Seve in 2010, that was decisive for me."
