Rory McIlroy has ruled out the possibility of taking on a dual role as both player and captain for Team Europe at a future Ryder Cup, insisting the demands of the job have grown too great.
As one of Europe’s most decorated Ryder Cup players, McIlroy has often been tipped as a natural leader in waiting. Since making his debut in 2010, he has been part of five victorious European teams.
The five-time major champion, who is expected to be one of Europe’s strongest weapons again at Bethpage Black in September, revealed he has already been approached about the idea – but wasted no time rejecting it.
‘No, I’ve been asked to do that, and I’ve turned it down,’ he said.
‘The idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon came up, and I shot it down straight away.’ When asked why, McIlroy replied: ‘Because I don’t think you can do it.’
The Northern Irishman explained that the modern Ryder Cup captain’s role has expanded far beyond what fans see during the three days of competition.
Rory McIlroy has rejected the possibility of him ever captaining Team Europe at the Ryder Cup
Since making his debut in 2010, the 36-year-old has been part of five winning European teams
‘It’s just the commitments that a captain has that week,’ he added. ‘You think about the extra media a captain has to do, you think about the extra meetings the captains have to do with the vice-captains, with the PGA of America, preparing your speech for the opening ceremony… there’s a lot of things that people don’t see that the captain does, especially now that the Ryder Cup has become so big.
McIlroy pointed out that while the idea might have been feasible in a different era, the scale and spectacle of the modern event make a player-captain virtually impossible.
‘If you’d have said it 20 years ago, I’d say, yeah, it was probably possible,’ he continued. ‘But now with how big of a spectacle it is and everything that’s on the line, I think it would be a very difficult position to be in.
The 2014 Open champion also stressed the practical limitations such a role would impose on his playing schedule across the weekend.
‘Then [on the playing side] 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 and one session on Saturday,’ he said.
‘Would you rather not have a player that has the flexibility to go twice [in a day] if he’s playing well?’
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Rory McIlroy shoots down the idea of being Team Europe captain for the Ryder Cup – as 36-year-old veteran makes candid confession
