Finally, Rory McIlroy became Rory McIlroy in a Ryder Cup. He emerged as a leader of the European team – winning four points from five, and unlucky not to have made it a clean sweep – in Rome, where the fire in the belly and his passion was noticeable in just about everything the world number two did.
For sure, McIlroy inspired those around him; more importantly, he inspired himself.
As the Northern Irishman departed Rome on Monday for a flight on his private jet back to Florida, and a six-week break before picking up sticks again in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, McIlroy could justifiably have pride in how he had taken on the mantle of leadership in the absence of those – the Poulters, the Westwoods, the Garcias – who’d filled the role so successfully in the past.
McIlroy’s Ryder Cup win rate stands with anyone’s, five wins from seven team appearances. However, this latest edition saw the 34-year-old deliver not like a postman, but more akin to a high-end courier. It was done in style, and his haul saw his personal career record move into positive numbers, with 16 wins, 13 losses and four halved matches since his debut in 2010.
The next big challenge for Europe, as McIlroy pointed out, is to win an away Ryder Cup. The USA haven’t won in Europe since the 1993 match at The Belfry in England, while Europe’s last success on American soil was that so-called “Miracle at Medinah” in 2012. Before that, it was at Oakland Hills in 2004.
“I think one of the biggest accomplishments in golf right now is winning an away Ryder Cup. And that’s what we’re going to do at Bethpage,” announced McIlroy with a degree of gung-ho bravado not long after the win in Rome. In fairness, he has been saying such things for a long time to anyone who listened.
He’s right, of course. The home advantage is a thing. Remember, for the 2008 match in Valhalla, US captain Paul Azinger got the course superintendent to cut off tree limbs to facilitate JB Holmes’s fade while he also asked for no rough beyond 300 yards to facilitate his big hitters.
“We want to try and enjoy this for the next couple of years and then get ready for New York and try to do something that’s very seldomly done in golf,” added McIlroy.
McIlroy’s exuberant bounce in his step was plain for all to see in Marco Simone.
As McIlroy put it: “We play an individual sport and golf is a game where you win quite seldomly. You win two or three times a year and it’s a great year. But we only get one opportunity at this every two years. To be surrounded by people who care as much about it as you do, it makes it very, very meaningful.
“The atmosphere we played in this week, I don’t think it can be replicated in any other golf tournament in the world. And that means something, to be able to play under that pressure in that atmosphere, win your point and do what you are supposed to do for your team. It means the world to me and I am sure it means the world to everyone else.
“These are the best days of our lives. It is why we practice. It is why we sacrifice the time. It is what we put all the hours and the hard work in for, it is to have moments like this where you go out there and be yourself and you try to let your talent shine through and you hope the work that you have put in gets the job done.”
McIlroy’s rise to true leader was, in its own way, matched by Shane Lowry. There can be little doubt about his Ryder Cup credentials after three days in Rome where he was the embodiment of the team’s passion and, of course, had that stand-in cameo as a bodyguard for McIlroy in the golf club’s car park. That, too, showed the close bond that has grown between the two.
Lowry, like McIlroy, is taking a break from tournament golf. “I’m looking forward to sitting back over the next few weeks and taking it all in. I have got six weeks off now which is really nice and I am going to have to do my best to set some goals for next season,” said the Offaly man.
What did he learn of himself on Sunday? “The most pleasing part, I knew going into the back nine the Ryder Cup was potentially in my hands and I felt incredibly calm. I trusted my game a lot. I hit some very good shots and I made putts when it mattered. I showed myself and I showed everyone else how good I could be on this stage,” said Lowry, who halved his match with Jordan Spieth. It should be noted the quality of Lowry’s play after a shaky start was that he had no fewer than 10 threes in his round.
After suffering defeat on his Ryder Cup debut in Whistling Straits, this win added another accolade to a career that already includes winning a Major, a WGC, and Rolex Series events, among them the BMW PGA.
“I would say it is on a par [with winning the British Open]. I have achieved some great things in golf, winning the Open in my home country being one of them. But this is something. I am going to put that replica Ryder Cup trophy we get right in beside the Claret Jug in my trophy case and that’s going to be a very proud moment for me,” said Lowry, who will target Bethpage (in 2025) and Adare Manor (2027) as future Ryder Cups.
Of that Ryder Cup in four years at Adare Manor, Lowry quipped: “I will be at least driving a buggy or something in that one,” before adding more seriously:
“That’s a long-term goal of mine [making the team for Adare Manor] and I have had my eye on that for a while, since it has been announced. Bethpage will be something I would love to be a part of. But I have to enjoy this one. I said it to the lads during the week, ‘you don’t know when it is going to be your last Ryder Cup so you have to make the most of the one that’s there in front of you’ and that’s what I did. Hopefully it is not my last but, if it is, it will be a very memorable one.”
