The European player Johnson Wagner ‘would love’ to see partner Rory McIlroy for the very first time at the Ryder Cup

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Rory McIlroy produced the best Ryder Cup performance of his career last time out in Rome, with the Northern Irishman winning four points for Luke Donald’s side at Marco Simone.

Luke Donald will be aware that it will be incredibly difficult for Europe to win the Ryder Cup at Bethpage later this month if the likes of Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm fail to make a big impact in New York.

Rahm looks to have an impressive partnership with Tyrrell Hatton. But McIlroy has never really had a settled partner throughout his Ryder Cup career.

The 36-year-old won two points alongside Tommy Fleetwood in Rome, while McIlroy and Matthew Fitzpatrick delivered Europe’s only victory on Friday afternoon.

Johnson Wagner names the European player he would love to see Rory McIlroy alongside at the Ryder Cup

Given that Europe go into this year’s event with 11 of the 12 players who won in 2023, it would be no surprise to see McIlroy play alongside Fleetwood and Fitzpatrick again. However, perhaps there is another name who could also bring the best out of the five-time major champion.

Speaking on 5 Clubs, Johnson Wagner suggested that Donald could put together a formidable pairing by putting McIlroy with Justin Rose, the man he beat to win The Masters earlier this year.

“The golf course, it’s not going to make that much of a difference to change these teams up at all. The only other person, I would love to see Rory and Rose play together. But when you’ve got such experience like that, you kind of want to spread them out to some of the younger guys. Lowry and Rory have played together in some sessions in past Ryder Cups, I think that would be fun to see as well. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I think it would take something drastic like a huge deficit for Luke Donald to start changing up those teams Saturday,” he said.

“Rose is so valuable. We didn’t see Rose play with Nicolai Hojgaard last time. I see Justin Rose, I think when you’ve got the veteran leadership, I see them going out with younger players. It was Rose and Bobby Mac playing both sessions of fourballs at Marco Simone. So given the fact that Rose has played so many of these cups, you want him fostering that young stuff. I love looking at these teams from last time, how exacting they were, let me stick Rose out with MacIntyre, Rahm with Hojgaard, Hovland with Aberg. They’re setting those guys up for success, those young players with that experience.”

The long list of partners Rory McIlroy has had in his Ryder Cup career

McIlroy has now had nine different partners across his seven Ryder Cup appearances. The most successful partnership he has had in that time may come as a real surprise.

McIlroy boasts a perfect record alongside Fleetwood and Thomas Pieters, with his pairing with the Belgian reaping three points at Hazeltine in 2016.

Meanwhile, Andy Sullivan, Thorbjorn Olesen and Shane Lowry have all lost their one match alongside McIlroy over the years.

And it proved to be mixed results when McIlroy has been put with Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter.

It is interesting that he has never been paired with Rose. Perhaps that wait will come to an end in a few weeks, with Wagner clearly thinking that they could be superb together.