Rory McIlroy believes the United States will need to switch Ryder Cup captains if Keegan Bradley qualifies to play next year at Bethpage. Bradley, 38, was the shock choice to lead the US after Tiger Woods turned down the opportunity. McIlroy said the news was met with “disbelief” when relayed to European players by their captain, Luke Donald, at a dinner on Sunday.
As a current player, the possibility of Bradley combining roles in New York has been mooted. McIlroy regards such a scenario as impossible; the idea was even suggested to the Northern Irishman for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Ireland but he immediately ruled it out.
Asked if playing and captaining a team is feasible, McIlroy said: “Absolutely not. I have contemplated it for Adare and no, there’s too much work that goes into it. I have seen what Luke went through preparing for Rome [last year] and there is no way. There is no way you can be as good a captain as you need to be and be a player as well.”
Pressed on Adare, McIlroy said: “It has been mentioned and I have just said: ‘No way.’ If you want to be the best captain you can be, you can’t play and if you want to be the best player, you can’t captain. It is one or the other, especially with how big the Ryder Cup has become and how many things you have to do in the lead up to or the week of the event.
“Keegan is the 19th-ranked player in the world so he has a great chance of making the team. If he does, he is just going to have to give that captaincy role to one of his vice-captains.”
McIlroy shared the surprise that has generally met the Bradley announcement. “Keegan was probably in disbelief, at some point, too, but certainly an interesting pick. The youngest captain since Arnold Palmer, who I think was a playing captain at 34. But he knows Bethpage very well. He went to university in the area.
“He’s very passionate about the Ryder Cup. It’s certainly a departure from what the US have done over the last few years and time will tell if that’s a good thing or not.”
McIlroy was understandably in fine spirits after opening his defence of the Scottish Open with a five under par 65. This marked his first on-course appearance since the US Open slipped from his grasp at Pinehurst last month.
“My game has been feeling pretty good in practice over the last 10 or so days since I picked the clubs back up,” he said. “The last time I played, I played well. I didn’t get the result I wanted but I’ve still got a lot of confidence in my game. A couple I would have liked to hole coming in to be a few shots lower but overall a great start to the tournament.”
