Rory McIlroy has made an admission concerning previous comments he made about Henrik Stenson after the LIV Golf star was stripped of the Ryder Cup captaincy ahead of last year’s event.
The build-up to the 2023 Ryder Cup certainly saw its fair share of drama. Initially, Team Europe were going to be led by Henrik Stenson as they looked to regain the cup they lost so comfortably two years earlier.
However, Stenson made the decision in 2022 to join the likes of Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood on the breakaway LIV Golf tour. And thus, the Swede was stripped of the captaincy for Rome.
In his place came Luke Donald. And Donald went on to lead his team brilliantly, with Europe winning by 16.5-11.5 over Zach Johnson’s Team USA.
In truth, the scoreline probably flatters the visitors for how the first two days played out. Heading into the fourth session, Europe led 9.5-2.5. With that, America did superbly to even create any drama on the final day.
Team Europe have already confirmed that Donald will lead the side again at Bethpage Black. And it seems that Rory McIlroy is one who cannot wait to play under the Englishman again.
Rory McIlroy makes admission about previous Henrik Stenson comments
Speaking on icanflypod, McIlroy explained why he had been dismissive of Stenson as he lauded his successor.
“He’s amazing. And think of the circumstances when he took that job as well. He wasn’t supposed to get it,” he said.
“Henrik Stenson ended up going to LIV, so Luke got it in the end. I said this year, but I probably shouldn’t have said it, Henrik Stenson going to LIV, I believe is part of the reason why Europe won the Ryder Cup. I don’t know what Henrik’s captaincy would have been like. But I would hard pressed to think that it would’ve been any better than Luke’s, because Luke was just absolutely amazing.”
LIV surely set to have future involvement with Ryder Cup team
It will be interesting to see how the team is made up in 2025. With the likes of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton since leaving for LIV Golf, it is hard to see Donald closing the door on players not regularly playing on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour.
Of course, that would then lead to another debate over whether a LIV golfer can captain the Ryder Cup side. Players such as Poulter, Westwood, Stenson and Sergio Garcia were previously nailed on to be future captains before their defections.
Should they come back into Ryder Cup contention in the future, there may be a few awkward conversations which need to be had.
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