Rory is on the brain of Team USA, even its merch department.
PublishedSeptember 9, 2025 10:31 AM EDT•UpdatedSeptember 9, 2025 10:31 AM EDT
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Rory McIlroy will be looking to be a thorn in the sides of every American golf fan during this month’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York, but one could say he’s gotten off to a head start thanks to an all-time blunder in the merchandise department.
The official U.S. Ryder Cup shop has every piece of memorabilia and merch one could ever imagine from a number of different well-known brands, but a specific t-shirt from Ralph Lauren has understandably caught everyone’s attention, and not because of the $65 price tag.
The navy t-shirt features a silhouette of a golfer holding their finish, and even the most casual golf fan out there would look at the graphic and think, ‘that’s Rory McIlroy.’
McIlroy has what has become an iconic high finish after hitting a shot, especially with a wood in-hand, like the silhouette shows.
Official U.S. Ryder Cup Shop
In all likelihood, Ralph Lauren designers probably spent all of about four minutes developing a silhouette for the t-shirt and potentially used AI to do so, but whatever they used, there is no doubt some sort of McIlroy image was on the consciousness of the human or robot behind the design.
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It really doesn’t matter if the graphic is an actual depiction of McIlroy. It looks identical to him and his golf swing, and Ralph Lauren is probably wishing at this point that it left the graphic out altogether or used a silhouette of one of the 12 American players on the U.S. team.
One thing is for sure, if Team Europe holds onto the cup and beats the U.S. on American soil later this month, McIlroy needs to roll into his Sunday press conference wearing this t-shirt.
