BETHPAGE, N.Y. — Rory McIlroy has been adamant in recent years how much the Ryder Cup means to him. Categorizing a win on American soil as one of the three goals remaining in his career, McIlroy’s the event — and this specific 45th edition being played at Bethpage Black in New York — circled on his calendar for a while.
The career grand slam winner enters his eighth straight playing of the competition holding a sentiment that he did not previously abide. As a 20-year-old wunderkind, McIlroy dismissed the importance of the Ryder Cup, calling it an “exhibition.” It was a stance he has since walked back with long strides.
Ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup, the European leader on Thursday revealed the exact moment he realized his initial feelings about th event were misguided.
“I think it’s more the behind-the-scenes stuff: The team room, the team talks,” he said. “For me, going in as a complete rookie — look, I watched Ryder Cups growing up. I cried whenever America won at Brookline. Like it’s not as if I didn’t feel something when I watched Ryder Cups. But I don’t know, I just — I got into that team room at Celtic Manor, and I just saw how much it meant to everyone. I sort of started [thinking], ‘Maybe I got this wrong.’ You start to see how much [it means], especially for Europeans.
“I remember Seve [Ballesteros] was sick, and we had him on one of those conference call things like back in the day. He’s speaking to the team, and we’re all in the team room. This is on like the Wednesday or Thursday night. I look around and the majority of the team is crying as Seve is talking to us. And I’m like, that is — that’s it. That’s the embodiment of what the European Ryder Cup team is. I think that was the moment, that conference call with Seve in 2010, was the moment for me.”
McIlroy made his Ryder Cup debut in 2010 at Celtic Manor, garnering a 1-1-2 record en route to a tight 14.5-13.5 European victory. The next playing saw Europe raise the cup on American soil as the team cultivated the spirit of Seve in what is still the most recent time a road team has triumphed on foreign soil — the 2012 “Miracle at Medinah.”
Leading that team inside the ropes was then-world No. 1 Luke Donald, who leads this year’s European squad as captain for the second consecutive playing. For Donald, the Miracle at Medinah proved to be his final Ryder Cup as a player — an experience McIlroy said the Englishman has relayed to the team.
“Luke went into the 2012 Ryder Cup as the No. 1 player in the world, the leader, really, of the European team,” McIlroy said. “No one thought that was going to be his last Ryder Cup as a player. He certainly didn’t think that. So, he talks to us about that all the time, about really trying to make the most of this opportunity that you have this week. And he is personification of that.”
Europe returns 11 of 12 players from Donald’s first captaincy, which resulted in a 16.5-11.5 victory at Marco Simone in Rome two years ago. McIlroy credits the continuity in this team in injecting confidence that this group can mimic what that 2012 team did and pull off the improbable — a road victory in the Ryder Cup.
“I feel like it’s been a really cohesive group for the last three years,” McIlroy said. “We all know what to expect. We all know what our roles are within the team. I think that that has us prepared to give it a really good go this week.”