Rory McIlroy on Caves Valley Changes, FedExCup Format & Why He Turned Down Ryder Cup Captaincy

Rory McIlroy shares his thoughts ahead of the BMW Championship at Caves Valley — from course changes and FedExCup playoff formats to his take on risk/reward holes, why he refused a playing captain role at the Ryder Cup, and what it will take to win this week.

All right, everyone. We’d like to welcome Rory Mroy to the media center here at the 2025 BMW Championship. Rory, you’re a threetime FedEx Cup champion. Um, you’ve won this tournament in 2012 and you’re making your 15th start here. Um, just talk about uh your prom this morning. Golf Course first impressions. Yeah. Um, yeah, good to be back. Um, you know, I I thought the tournament here four years ago at K Valley was was really cool. um felt like it was the first um like really big crowds postco um so it was really cool to play in that atmosphere. I I guess they’re um anticipating big crowds again this week so you know that’ll be that’ll be cool to play in front of and yeah I mean the golf course is um it’s a little different than last time. um you know, 18 completely new green comp complexes. Uh it’s definitely, you know, the whole golf course is is a little drier than than it was last time and um definitely think it’ll it’ll provide um a lot more of a challenge um this this time around. So, yeah, it’s it’s good. It’s a it’s a it’s a good setup. Greens are, you know, they’ve got a bit of firmness to them. Um you know, you got to put the ball in play and yeah, it’s it’s it’s going to be a good week. I’m I’m excited to to get back at it. All right, we’ll jump straight into questions. If anybody has a question, just raise your hand and we’ll get you a microphone. It’s hard to see up here. So, we’ll start with Paul right here. Rory, just playing off the golf course. Just wondering in particular that 18th hole, I think last time it was here, that was the hardest hole on the golf course. Just wondering kind of what you see about that hole that makes it a difficult finisher. Yeah, it’s a I for me it it’s a little bit of an awkward visual off the tea. Um you know, they’ve moved they’ve moved those bunkers a little closer to the to the tea this year. So, um you know, if you want to take them out of play, you’re going to be leaving yourself quite a long way back. Um so, you got really got to challenge those bunkers up the left and obviously you got the creek on the right. It’s um you know, it’s all about the T-shot. If you get the T-shot in play, I feel like it’s a you know, it’s a it’s a getable hole. Um, but yeah, it’s a and it’s a, you know, for me, you know, I could hit three, you know, as I said, I could hit 3-wood and maybe leave it short of those bunkers, but it leaves you a, you know, seven iron in. Um, or you can challenge and and hit driver and get yourself a short iron or wedge. Um, really just depends how you’re feeling, you know, feeling with the with the T-shot. But um it’s a it’s a great it’s a great um you know the last two finishing holes I mean 17 is a lot longer than it than it used to be as well. It’s you know looking back at the playoff between Patrick and Bryson there um a few years ago it’s it’s not going to be um you know a nine iron or whatever it was that those guys were hitting in. Um so yeah, it’s a it’s a big golf course. You know a couple of those par fives previously are now par fours. I think they’re going to I think 12’s probably going to play the toughest hole this week. Um but yeah, it’s a it’s a big golf course. You gotta um you got to drive it well and and even from then, you know, there’s a lot of sort of mid to to long irons out there. Anyone else? Next, Fergie, do you have a question? What do you think of five? Five is um it’s a you know it’s obviously they’ve they’ve tried to to make it a riskreward hole, but I just don’t know if the risk is worth the reward. It’s uh it’s just a very very tough green to go for off the tea. Um, and if you miss the green at all on the right in that rough, it’s going to be almost impossible to hit the green with your your chip shot or your, you know, so it’s I think you’re just going to see a lot of guys lay up there and um, you know, take the 100 yard wedge shot and try to make three that way. What kind of risk did you take as you in the pro end today? Um, I played the other side. Um, but I I hit driver I hit driver I played that front side on Monday. Um, and I hit it I hit a good T-shot. It just sort of caught the the false front and went over to the left near the hazard and it was a decent chip up the green. But it’s it’s just a little you know if you’re think you know if you know sometimes I I think we think about these riskreward holes too much in isolation and instead of thinking about the entire week you know you got 72 holes to play you play that hole four times. I think if you play that hole in one under for the week you’ve probably done you’re probably doing well. So, you know, and I’d I’d back myself to make a birdie there from the fairway. Um, you know, with a wedge in my hand, you know, instead of, you know, trying to hit a little chip shot out of, you know, some rough or, you know, so I think I think you’re just going to see a lot of guys lay up and and take their chances with a wedge in their hand. And then last thing from me, you are a three-time seasonlong FedEx Cup champion. Uh, are you the season long champion if you win next week or or is whoever wins next week? Can you consider that a seasonl long champion when you just get to East Lake and win one tournament? I mean, I who knows at this point. Um, that’s why I asked you. I I don’t know. I think it’s it’s hard, you know. It’s like Yeah. every other sport has or every other American sport has has playoffs and you know they sort of try to make a big deal of the um the end of the season. Um and I think it’s hard and got you know I come you know look I come from a place where like the Premier League Liverpool won won the the Premier League last year with five games to to spare. You know that’s sometimes what happens in sports. Sometimes you have you have guys or you have a team that that is just that much better than everyone else that that season and they are the they are the deserving winner. So um you know I think from a player perspective it seems like the consensus was that um people didn’t like the starting stroke. So to to get rid of that is um a good thing. But I I I now think that the tour championship um not being starting strokes is, you know, it’s sort of its own it’s its own thing now. you know, you obviously you win the tour championship, which then means you win the FedEx Cup, but um I don’t necessarily think that means that you’re the seasonl long winner, you know, unless Scotty Sheffler wins it and he is the season long winner, but he, you know, but you know, like every like everyone knows Scotty Sheffller is, you know, the you know, he’s won two majors this year. You know, he you know, he’s you know, head and shoulders above the rest in terms of the points going into this week. he’ll be ahead of everyone going in, you know, in the points going into next week. So, he’s he’s deservedly got his bonus all the way through. Um, and then everything resets and, you know, it’s sort of Yeah, I guess I I see it as more of a one-off event rather than the culmination of the entire season. Doug, can you hand that to Bob and we’ll go to Adam first. Rory, in this they’re calling this kind of a bridge year with the tour championship. Is there something that you would like to see change to make it even more compelling for the future? Um, yeah. I mean, I don’t I you know, there’s obviously been a lot of discourse about should these playoffs be mandatory or not or, you know, obviously I didn’t play last week and is that something that they need to look at? Um, you know, it could be something where, you know, and I’ve heard this idea kicked around where, you know, everything resets after Windham and then the top 70 just play for the top 50 spots to get into the next week and then everything resets again here and then the top 30 from this week then make it to the tour championship. I mean, if if you want to try to to make it straight playoffs and elimination, I think that would be a a good way to go. But, um, you’re trying to balance a lot of different things. You’re trying to balance the the the competitive integrity of of what the playoffs are, but you’re also trying to keep the meteorites partners happy. You’re trying to keep the sponsors happy. You know, they’re the people that are paying the big bucks to expect the, you know, the big names to be playing in their golf tournaments. And, you know, that’s a that’s a delicate balance. If if you had uh if you had gone from being number two back to the very end at 50 for not having played last week, would you have would you have still skipped? Yeah, I’m I’m playing nine times between now and the end of the year. So I I think by the time October, November comes around, I’m I’m going to be glad of that extra week off. Yeah. Okay. And as you try to figure out kind of new goals, I’m curious, is being a Rder Cup playing captain something that you aspire to? Is that is that something No, I’ve I’ve been asked to do that and I’ve turned it down. You’ve already been asked to be the captain. No, I’ve been I’ve you know the the I’ve the idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon coming up has come up and I’ve shot it down straight away. Yeah. Why? Because I don’t think you can do it. We’ll go to Bob and then over this side. Hey. Hey Rory. Um, you I don’t know if you publicly said it or maybe you did in an interview a long time ago, you sort of telegraphed that you weren’t going to play last week, so it wasn’t maybe a big surprise, but obviously there was some reaction to it. Um, wouldn’t you think though or do you think that maybe you’re a little bit the outlier? You just mentioned that um you’ve got big schedule coming up. uh you know where most of the guys don’t uh you know especially the American guys they’re kind of done after next week except for the RDER Cup. Uh so I’m just curious if you think you’re you’re maybe the outlier. Guys aren’t typically skipping $20 million tournaments. No, I’m you know a lot of the guys aren’t 18 years into their professional career either. You know you know it’s I I feel like I’m in a little bit of a different position than than than some of the guys. And um yeah, you know, as I said, I’m playing nine times between now and the end of the year. So, I’ve still got a pretty busy stretch coming up. And um you know, I just think that extra week off um you know, will will do me good, you know, with with the events coming up and you know, some big events that are important to me. Irish Open, Wentworth, obviously the RDER Cup, you know, I want to try to win my seventh race to Dubai over in Europe as well. And um you know there’s some things that are still important to me that I want to go play in. And um you know that that was a you know big part of the reason why I you know I wanted to take that extra week off last week. We’ll do front left down here. Rory, could you just elaborate on why you think it would so be so difficult to be a playing captain? I just think the commitments that a captain has the week of you think about the extra media that a captain has to do. you think about the, you know, the the extra meetings that the captains have to do with the vice captains, um, you know, with the PG of America in in Keegan’s um, case. Um, you know, preparing your speech for the opening ceremony. Uh, you know, just there’s there’s a lot of there’s a lot of things that people don’t see that the captain does the week of the Ryder Cup, especially now that the Ryder Cup has become so big. If you had said 20 years ago, I would have been like, “Yeah, I I think it was it was probably possible to do.” But with how big of a spectacle and everything that’s on the line in a Ryder Cup now, I I just think it would be, you know, a very difficult position to be in. So, um, I just think for those reasons. And then, you know, are, you know, the captain isn’t going to be on the course all day, so really the captain’s only going to be able to play one session on Friday, one session on Saturday. you know, would you rather not have a player that has the flexibility to go twice if he’s playing well? And you know, there’s just there’s a lot of different things that that go into it and and that’s why I I think look, it’s just my opinion, but I think it would just be very difficult to do. And I think you played with Keegan at Harper. Yeah. Just this is that right? Uh maybe the first couple days. Yeah. Yeah. So just the state of his game like what what did you what do you see from him as a as a player right now? I I definitely think he’s one of the best 12 American players right now, you know? You know, that’s why it’s a, you know, everyone’s so interested and it’s such a compelling um it’s such a compelling case and it’s going to be, you know, I’m just as interested as everyone else to see how it all plays out. All right. Does everybody have what they need or we have more? Just for you, if you were a captain at some point, what would you look for in a in a pick? What would stand out to you? Form meshing. Meshing. I mean, meshing. Um, you know, you you you have to you have to you have to be able to blend in with the rest of the team. Well, um, maybe already have a partner in mind that you could play with uh, for forsomes and then maybe for the better ball also. Um, and I think that adaptability and that flexibility, having someone that can go five if they’re playing really well and they, you know, and they they’re playing well that week. Um, and yeah, that’s something that, you know, someone that the rest of the guys are really comfortable with. You know, you don’t want you don’t want to have a fox in the hen house. All right, last one right here. Yeah. And then just a little bit of a change of pace here as you as you end off. Obviously, you’ve made a lot of money in your career. Do you remember what you spent your first tour paycheck on? Yes. A watch. A watch with diamonds around it. It was horrific. I can’t believe it was like it’s like the worst purchase ever. It was so bad. Do you remember like the make model? I do. It’s not the it’s not the make a model that I’m sponsored by now, so I’m not going to I’m not going to say it. Oh, good. Thank you so much. You’re welcome. All right. Thanks everybody. Rory, appreciate it. Have a great week. Thank you. 20 grand.