The 45th edition of the Ryder Cup will mark the eighth occasion Rory McIlroy has represented Team Europe at the match.
The Northern Irishman made his Ryder Cup bow back in 2010 at a rain-sodden Celtic Manor in Wales.
He helped Colin Montgomerie’s side win to a 14.5-13.5 win on that occasion, sparking wild celebrations as the Europeans avenged a crushing 16.5-11.5 defeat two years earlier at Valhalla.
After qualifying automatically for the contest, McIlroy played his part, halving his four-ball match alongside Graeme McDowell before the pair secured a 3&1 victory in the second session of foursomes as the Europeans began to take control.
However, while McIlroy celebrated by popping champagne corks with his teammates after securing the win, a year before the match, he had played down its significance, to put it mildly.
In fact, McIlroy was borderline dismissive of the Ryder Cup, saying: “It’s not that important an event for me. It’s an exhibition at the end of the day. Obviously, I’ll try my best for the team, but I’m not going to go running around fist-pumping.”
There are mitigating circumstances. At the time, McIlroy was just 21 years old, while he arguably had his eyes on prizes that, at the stage of his career, he deemed more worthy.
Back then, for example, although long earmarked as a generational talent, McIlroy had yet to win a Major, although he had come close, with four top 10s.
If his priority was getting over the line in the big events, he achieved it in style soon after, with all but one of his five Major titles coming within the next four years.
Since the 2010 match, McIlroy helped Europe win at the famous Medinah comeback in 2012, before he collected three points as the team won 16.5-11.5 at Gleneagles two years later.
Another win came at Le Golf National in 2018, where McIlroy secured two points, while he was also instrumental in Europe’s win at Marco Simone two years ago with another four points.
There has been heartache, too, with heavy defeats at Hazeltine in 2016 and 2021 at Whistling Straits.
On that latter occasion, his emotions were laid bare, fighting back tears as he told Sky Sports: “I love being part of this team. I love my teammates and I should have done more for them,” before adding: "I just can’t wait to get another shot at this.”
Still, those words from 15 years ago have never quite been forgotten, and McIlroy was reminded of them again ahead of the 2023 Ryder Cup.
In a video posted by the DP World Tour to mark his automatic qualification for the 2025 match, McIlroy reads the quote aloud before responding.
“I said that in my naïveté as a young swashbuckling lad,” he remarked. “I now have been part of the Ryder Cup a lot and what those three quotes are couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Obviously, I had watched Ryder Cups on TV, I’d cheered for the European team, and I’d played team golf before, but it’s just a completely different environment once you get in there, seeing how much it means to everyone. It is the purest competition in golf to me. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Two years on from that interview, and McIlroy has added to his long list of achievements in the game, most notably putting over a decade of heartache in Majors behind him by winning The Masters to complete his career Grand Slam.
In other words, now aged 36, if anyone knows where winning the Ryder Cup stands on the list of golf’s career milestones, it’s McIlroy.
Before yet another win, at the Amgen Irish Open, McIlroy opened up about what victory at the Ryder Cup for the second time on US soil in his career would mean, particularly away from home in an era where neither side has achieved it since that unforgettable day at Medinah 13 years ago.
He said: “I am. I'm very excited. I've said this repeatedly, but I think winning an away Ryder Cup, it's up there with one of the biggest achievements in the game, especially nowadays.”
McIlroy may never quite be allowed to forget his dismissive words about the Ryder Cup before his maiden appearance, but there’s no doubt that since then, he’s said all the right things to redress the balance.
Nowadays, a talisman of the European team, he is the player most will look towards on the course as the Europeans seek greatness at Bethpage Black.
