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Farmingdale, new – A year before making his Ryder Cup debut, Rory McIlroy called the tournament “for an exhibition” for which he would not “run around fist pumping for.”
He has done much more than fist pump. In 2016, every putt was like he had scored a touchdown, and five years later, tears flooded in the midst of a brutal loss at Whistling Straits.
McIlroy repeated for journalists on Thursday that he will always be “proud of my individual results in the game”, but in the famous emotional plea in 2021 he said he had never been emotional over personal results (that is, until this year’s Masters).
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Rory McIlroy from Northern Ireland recognizes the spectators on 18. During the day four of 2025 BMW PGA The Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, Surrey, England, Sunday 14 September 2025. (Adam Davy/Pa via AP)
It has been quite a 180-degree trip to McIlroy, and he revised when he admitted to himself that he was “wrong.”
And it didn’t take too long for him to realize.
“I think it’s more behind the scenes.
“I got into that team in Celtic Manor and I saw just how much it meant to everyone. I started the kind I was like, maybe I got this wrong … I can remember Seve [Ballesteros] Was sick and we had him on one of these conference call things back on the day. He talks to the team and we are all in the team room. This is on Wednesday or Thursday night. And I look around, and most of the team cries when Seve talks to us.
Nick Faldo of the European team celebrates his fnal Day Singles victory with teammate Seve Ballesteros in the Ryder Cup at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York. (David Cannon/Allsport)
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“And I’m like, 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.”
Ballesteros played a key role in what the Ryder Cup is today. The tournament had originally been between just the United States and the UK/Ireland, but it expanded to include the whole of Europe in 1979, making Ballesteros and other golf legends justified.
Ballesteros died less than a year after the 2010 Ryder Cup, and Europe retained the cup with a dramatic Sunday comeback in 2012 on Medinah, the first since Spanjolen’s death.
On day, Rory McIlroy competes three of 2025 BMW due to the championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, Surrey, England, Saturday, September 13, 2025. (Adam Davy/Pa via AP)
Oh, and the pink purple shirts that Europeans were wearing during this comeback? They returned on Thursday.
“It’s nice,” McIlroy said. “It’s nice.”
