Rory McIlroy has always been crystal clear on being a Ryder Cup captain – he doesn’t think you can nail both playing and captaining. In summer 2024, he said, “There’s no way you can be as good a captain as you need to be and be playing as well. It’s been mentioned, and I’ve just said, ‘No way.’” Now, back at the PGA Tour playoffs this week, McIlroy fielded plenty of questions about next month’s Ryder Cup.
A big topic was US captain Keegan Bradley possibly picking himself for the team. Though plenty of American pros have pressured Bradley regarding the role, McIlroy seemed hesitant to do the same. Ahead of the BMW Championship, he first stated that, “No, I’ve — the idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon coming up has come up, and I’ve shot it down straight away.”
Then, he pointed at the logistical nightmare of taking up such duties. The Northern Irishman explained, “You think about the extra media that a captain has to do, you think about the extra meetings that the captains have to do with the vice captains, with the PGA of America…”
No playing captain’s been in the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer way back in 1963. Back then, the event was a lot smaller and nowhere near the global extravaganza it’s turned into today. So, as McIlroy points out, “in Keegan’s case, preparing your speech for the opening ceremony — just there’s a lot of things that people don’t see that the captain does the week of the Ryder Cup, especially now that the Ryder Cup has become so big.”
This is a developing story…
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