Rory McIlroy will be one of the key members of the European Ryder Cup team when it takes on the US at the Bethpage Black match later in the month.
He has revealed the team has made some unusual preparations for what is sure to be a hostile atmosphere.
Luke Donald’s Europeans will be defending the title after a 16.5-11.5 victory two years ago at Marco Simone in Italy.
However, despite the emphatic nature of that win, and with 11 of the 12 players from the match still in the team, no one is under any illusions about the size of the task on US soil.
The last time the visitors won in the US was at Medinah in 2012, but since then, the Europeans have suffered defeat away from home twice, first at Hazeltine in 2016 and next at Whistling Straits in 2021.
One of the big factors working in the Americans’ favor will be a raucous home crowd, but, speaking to reporters after the BMW PGA Championship, McIlroy revealed he thinks the team is better prepared for the atmosphere than in 2021.
He said: “I think so. I mean, there’s a lot of us that have experience at playing away Ryder Cups. There’s a few of us who have experience of winning in away Ryder Cups, so I think that’s a big part of it.”
He then detailed how the team is preparing for a hostile atmosphere, specifically, VR headsets programmed with insults.
“It is just to simulate the sights and sounds and noise,” explained McIlroy. “That’s the stuff that we are going to have to deal with.
“So it’s better to try to desensitise yourself as much as possible before you get in there. You can get them to say whatever you want them to say. So you can go as close to the bone as you like.”
Even with the use of tech, McIlroy admitted it can’t come close to replicating the real thing.
He continued: “We are doing everything we can to best prepare ourselves for what it is going to feel like on Friday week.
“But nothing can really prepare you until you’re actually in that. You can wear all the VR headsets you want and do all the different things we’ve been trying to do to get ourselves ready, but once the first tee comes on Friday it’s real and we just have to deal with whatever’s given.”
Regardless, it appears no stone is being left unturned in preparation for the match, including a team visit to the venue beforehand.
The members of the team who played at the BMW PGA Championship headed to London’s Heathrow airport after the event to catch a flight to New York, where they will be joined by Sepp Straka, who was the only one of the 12 to miss it.
On the decision to make the trip, strategic advisor to Team Europe, Paul McGinley, who is joining the team, told Sky Sports: “It’s a recce. We’ve never done this before for an away match before en masse, everybody going together.
“Luke has been planning this for nearly a year. He’s got some guest speakers, he’s got some ideas that the players are going to see and everybody will obviously play the golf course too. It’s a real good bonding week. It worked very well going into Italy.”
