Rory McIlroy played a key role for Team Europe as they won the Ryder Cup for the sixth time out of the last eight meetings with the United States.
Keegan Bradley was left questioning himself after the United States’ defeat to Europe while Rory McIlroy and his teammates were safe in the knowledge that they’d got everything right once again.
The Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black was a heated affair, with the friendly banter from the practice rounds quickly turning into vile abuse by the time the afternoon four-ball matches rolled around on Friday.
McIlroy was the target of abuse from US Ryder Cup fans throughout the entire week at Bethpage Black.
Did Keegan Bradley make a mistake by taking the Ryder Cup captaincy?
Many times, the US fans crossed the line with the unacceptable things they were shouting at McIlroy and co.
Bizarrely, Bradley actually defended the American Ryder Cup fans after his side’s defeat at Bethpage.
The 39-year-old made plenty of mistakes during his Ryder Cup captaincy but that may well have been the worst of the lot!
He seemed to struggle under the pressure of being the Ryder Cup captain.
In fairness, McIlroy had Bradley on strings long before the Ryder Cup had even begun.
Rory McIlroy played mind games with Keegan Bradley before the Ryder Cup
McIlroy was in superb form at the Ryder Cup and walked away from Bethpage with a 3-1-1 record.
Everything that Team Europe did during the first two days of play turned to gold while Bradley and his players desperately struggled.
When speaking on the Fried Egg Golf Podcast, McIlroy responded when asked about Bradley’s role as captain of the US side.
He said: “I think Keegan was put in a tough spot. It came so out of left field that he was offered this job, especially as one of the best players in the world in his prime. It was an impossible position to be put into, especially after winning the Travellers.
“It was a really tough one for Keegan. It’s easy in hindsight. Could they have used him? Maybe. Who knows?“
McIlroy then admitted to gamesmanship once before the Ryder Cup began.
He said: “It was a little bit of gamesmanship when I kept saying you can’t do both or whatever. Obviously I am trying to get in their heads and do anything I can to be that person for Europe. But at the same time, it was an impossible position to be put in.
“I felt for him. I especially felt for him that week, when we know he was talking about all he wanted to do was be out there and play with the guys. It was tough. But I think that speaks more to the sort of structure of the PGA of America and where they are at, more so than Team USA.“
McIlroy definitely got in Bradley’s head because the US Ryder Cup captain felt the need to respond.
Bradley said: “How does he know, has he ever done it?“
And from that moment, it was clear that McIlroy and Team Europe had an advantage over the Americans.
Rory McIlroy has noticed big problem with the US Ryder Cup setup
McIlroy believes that Europe have one big advantage over the United States when it comes to Ryder Cup week.
On the Fried Egg Podcast, McIlroy opened up when asked why he believes Europe have had so much success in the competition recently.
“I think Team USA are fine,“ he said.
“I just think what Europe have is that maybe we have some in built advantages with the structure we have with Ryder Cup Europe and the fact we have people who work 24/7 all year on the Ryder Cup and we see these people weekly, if not monthly at European Tour events, and the American team don’t quite have that same structure.
If Tiger Woods is not the next US Ryder Cup captain, who should get the job for Adare Manor?
“No one’s asked me.”
Tiger Woods’ response when asked if he would be interested in the 2027 Ryder Cup captaincy
“We feel like we have created this little bit of an in built advantage. So maybe one day when the USA re-jig that and come up with a similar structure but that’s where we feel organisationally we may be a step ahead.“
The Europeans have now won 11 out of the last 15 Ryder Cup clashes with the United States.
The Americans have not won on foreign soil since 1993 and something clearly has to be changed moving forward.
The main problem for the Americans is that they believe they did everything they could at Bethpage. They feel like Europe’s superior putting made the difference.
However, look closer and it’s clear to see that there are a lot of problems in the US Ryder Cup setup.
It will be interesting to see whether the United States adopt Europe’s approach of having a purpose-built Ryder Cup structure moving forward.
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