Rory McIlroy on his tearful Ryder Cup week? "What I said was all true"

Rory McIlroy opened up on his tears at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits before the 2023 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Ben Smith

13 Sep 2023

Rory McIlroy on his tearful Ryder Cup week? "What I said was all true"

Rory McIlroy opened up on his Whistling Straits tears as he revealed he's desperate for the forthcoming Ryder Cup to reunite men's professional golf after more than a year of unprecedented disruption.

McIlroy will play in his seventh Ryder Cup in a few weeks' time and is hoping to right the wrongs of the 2021 Cup in Sheboygan.

In that contest he was dropped for the very first time by then skipper Padraig Harrington.

He felt like he didn't contribute the way he could have and perhaps should have, ultimately breaking down in tears after he defeated Xander Schauffele 3&2 in the singles.

Watch Rory McIlroy's daughter Poppy steal the show at BMW PGA Championship

It wasn't the first time McIlroy was reduced to an emotional wreck in the competition, he said.

McIlroy told media before the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth he was just as emotional after Team USA rallied from a 10-6 deficit to clinch the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline.

The Northern Irishman suggested the forthcoming Cup evokes a similar emotional response to the landmark 150th Open at St. Andrews.

He told the media he's hoping that for four days at least the 'noise' can be turned off.

The Ulsterman explained on Team Europe's recent trip to Italy he spoke to the group about why the Cup is so important to him.

He explained:

"I told a story on Monday night to the team about watching Brookline in '99 on TV and crying after America came back and Europe lost, and obviously I cried in Whistling Straits in 2021, so not much has changed.

"But yeah, I fell as, you know, someone that should go out there and win points for the team, I didn't do that. Whether I had of played well that week and whether it would have made a difference whether we won or lost, who knows."

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McIlroy continued:

"But you know, I just didn't -- I felt like I had, you know -- we're not used to playing for other people in this game, and you go out there and you're playing for your teammates, you want to do well for them.

"I felt like I didn't do that and I felt like I didn't give a good account of myself and that stung and the score line stung. First time I had been dropped in a session in the Ryder Cup.

"There's just a lot of things that -- it was a difficult week for me.

"But that emotion was real and what I said at the end of that tournament was all true. It is by far the best experience in sport, and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with your teammates in an environment like that is I think the epitome of what competition and what sport it."

McIlroy will play the first two rounds of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth alongside Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg.

He has been victorious in this event once, carding a final round of 66 to pip Thomas Bjorn by one stroke in 2014.

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