The Ryder Cup: A team event he once derided has become huge to Rory McIlroy

There’s a certain irony to Rory McIlroy being seen these days as a European Ryder Cup warrior in the mold of – pause here to genuflect – Seve Ballesteros, Spain’s sainted “El Matador” whose combativeness transformed a humdrum pageant into the golfing equivalent of a back-alley brawl.

At the 2023 Cup in Rome, McIlroy became so incensed when an American caddie disrupted his putting preparation during a crucial moment on Day 2 that he got into a shouting match captured live on global television.

Seve, rest his beautifully pugnacious soul, would have approved – especially since McIlroy and the Euros ended up pummeling the American squad, 16 ½ to 11 ½. 

Now the Cup competition returns to U.S. soil, to America’s most revered (truly) public course, architect A.W. Tillinghast’s 89-year-old gem, the Black Course at Bethpage State Park on Long Island. With the U.S. guys hellbent on revenge, the Euros still smoldering over perceived American “disrespect,” and feisty New York fans poised to stick it to the reigning champs, count on plenty of noisy fireworks. 

Also count on McIlroy, fresh off his emotional win at the Irish Open, being in the middle of the ruckus. For someone once so indifferent about the Cup that he dismissed it as a mere “exhibition” – and two years later came within a hairsbreadth of missing his tee time for an all-or-nothing singles match – McIlroy has stunned many in the golfing world by becoming a Cup firebrand, Seve’s successor.

After the Euros were swamped at Whistling Straits in 2021, McIlroy fought back tears while being interviewed, claiming that he didn’t give a (rhymes with “mitt”) about individual accomplishments, that the only thing that mattered to him was Ryder Cup team play – a curious sentiment that never escaped the lips of Nick Faldo or Tiger Woods and isn’t likely to be uttered by Scottie Scheffler in the foreseeable future, either.

Why the McIlroy fixation on something that, not long ago, was barely a blip on golf’s radar screen? It may well have something to do with the uneasy circumstances of his upbringing.

McIlroy grew up in the U.K.’s Northern Ireland, a fractured homeland where nationalism and religion too often have been used as bloody cudgels. McIlroy is neither completely Irish nor completely British. It explains why he agonized over which country (he ended up choosing Ireland) to represent in the Olympic Games and – even more telling – why he once volunteered that he has qualms about the concept of “patriotism.” His ambivalence is understandable: For the entirety of Northern Ireland’s century-long existence, patriotism run amok has triggered unspeakable hatred and civil strife.

Examine the lives of McIlroy's forebears and you’ll see in miniature the island’s scarred past, what poet William Butler Yeats called Ireland’s “terrible beauty.” Both sides of McIlroy’s family were devastated by the North’s sectarian Troubles, which claimed 3,700 lives in the last third of the 20^th century. His mother grew up in a village so consumed by religious violence it was known as “Murder Town.” His father’s uncle, a Catholic, was assassinated by masked gunmen for the “crime” of moving his family into a Protestant neighborhood.

McIlroy is loath to acknowledge it, but he’s the child and grandchild of nightmarish conflict. No one should be surprised that he’s gone through life – and golf – conflicted.

When put against the disheveled history of his family and homeland, McIlroy’s Ryder Cup obsession begins to make sense. Maybe the Cup means so much to him because in his youth, he never truly pledged allegiance to a flag or sang along to a national anthem. McIlroy once admitted that he didn’t know the lyrics to either Great Britain’s “God Save the King” or Ireland’s national hymn, “The Soldier’s Song.” 

The Ryder Cup, at least when it goes the Euros’ way, gives McIlroy a chance to sing loud and proud. Cellphone video of the Euro team bus after its 2023 victory caught him belting, “USA is terrified!! Europe’s on fire!!” to the dance tune “Freed from Desire.”

A team event McIlroy once derided has become his Fourth of July, Guy Fawkes Night and St. Patrick’s Day, all rolled into one. 

Does the Cup mean too much to McIlroy? No doubt. But the Cup meant too much to Seve, too – and the sports world is richer for it. 

No one is rooting for fisticuffs or blood getting spilled on Tillinghast’s ageless masterpiece. But a little rhubarb or two? Somewhere, El Matador is smiling at the prospect.

Editor's Note: Timothy M. Gay is a Pulitzer-nominated historian and author of five books. His most recent book is RORY LAND: The Up-and-Down World of Golf’s Global Icon, now available from Regalo Press/Simon & Schuster.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Ryder Cup: Rory McIlroy once derided the team event but now it's huge