Rory McIlroy played an integral role for the European team during their Ryder Cup win at Bethpage Black in September 2025.
McIlroy endured a really difficult week at Bethpage Black, but his performances during the Ryder Cup were truly sensational.
The abuse directed at McIlroy from the US Ryder Cup fans turned nasty midway through the first day’s play.
However, the five-time major winner did exceptionally well to maintain his levels in spite of the negative noise circling around him.
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McIlroy has said that the US Ryder Cup players should have done more to calm down the boisterous home crowd.
However, it all matters little now.
McIlroy and his fellow European Ryder Cup teammates beat the Americans, and that really is all that matters.
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During an appearance on The Overlap Podcast, McIlroy spoke in-depth about the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
McIlroy was asked whether he was physically or mentally drained during the Sunday singles at the Ryder Cup.
“For me, that week, it was mental,“ he said.
“I felt okay. I’d say, for the front nine on Sunday, and then I just I felt like I hit a wall, and it’s, um, I completely lost the feeling of my swing, so I felt…
“Like, I was trying to hit, say, a five-yard fade. I was trying to hit it left to right, and the ball was coming out and curving 15 yards right to left. And I was just like, ‘what is this?’, I was just completely lost.
“It hasn’t ever happened to me like that. But, you know, you’re used to seeing the ball come out in a certain window, a certain shape or a certain trajectory, and this just I was like, ‘I can’t do it’.
“I felt like I was making a swing to hit a fade and it just wasn’t (fading). At that point, I just had to play with it because you have to just sort of manage yourself.
“Like, I didn’t play great against Scottie on that Sunday, but I hung in there and holed a couple of putts when I needed to, and got him to the last, but, yeah, that’s what happened.“
All credit to McIlroy for hanging on in there during his singles match against Scheffler.
In all fairness to him, he had contributed more than enough already during the first two days, having taken 3.5 points from his four matches.
In hindsight, perhaps Luke Donald should have rested the Northern Irishman for the Saturday afternoon four-balls.
Rory McIlroy explains exactly why he was so tired at the Ryder Cup
It was a long and exhausting week for everyone in the European team.
However, McIlroy was one of the few who played all five matches and he had to deal with the mental torture of receiving terrible personal abuse from the American fans.
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And the 2025 Masters champion lifted the lid on the main reason why it all caught up with him on Sunday.
“It’s a long week, you know? You’re getting to the golf course at 4:30 in the morning,“ McIlroy explained.
“You’re not getting back to the hotel until 8:30 or 9pm, and that turnaround, the Friday night of the Ryder Cup, is like the toughest turnaround of the year because you’ve just played 36 holes.
“You get maybe six hours asleep, then you’re back up again at 4am to get to the golf course, playing another 36 holes.
“We tee off at 7am. So I like to get to the golf course two-and-a-half to three hours before. I do my warmup in the gym, I do my routine to get ready.
“So if you’re teeing off at 7 or 7:15, yeah, I’m there at half four.“
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