World No.2 and his sidekick Shane Lowry face Joe LaCava two years after the incident which sparked Rome rabble
17:57, 26 Sep 2025Updated 18:00, 26 Sep 2025
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Rory McIlroy of Team Europe
2025 Ryder Cup, Day One, Morning Foursomes, Golf, Bethpage Black Golf Course, New York, USA – 26 Sep 2025
Revved-up Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry are back for a repeat of the battle with Patrick Cantlay’s caddie Joe LaCava.
The Irish duo are paired together for the afternoon Ryder Cup fourballs on Friday at Bethpage.
In a stunning twist of fate, they will face Sam Burns and Cantlay and therefore be reunited with the bagman that sparked the infamous McIlroy outburst in the car park area in Rome two years ago and the subsequent intervention from his buddy.
The incident came after the end of the Saturday afternoon match when Cantlay had been hounded all day by Euro fans for not wearing a hat in apparent protest at not being paid to play. After holing a putt on the last, the player celebrated with his team-mates and LaCava decided to also start swinging his hat in defiance for his man.
However, while doing so, he stood around too long preventing McIlroy from properly lining up his putt and, when asked to move aside, compounded his behaviour by acting badly and chirping at the Euro hero while he still had a chance to halve the game with partner Matt Fitzpatrick.
(Image: Getty Images)
Lowry was amongst those who stormed onto the green to confront Americans and LaCava afterwards and the incident spilled over into the post match.
McIlroy was raging and fumed at ex-caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay. At that point, Lowry bundled his pal into the waiting courtesy car to get him off the scene.
Ironically, as LaCava was carrying Cantlay’s bag around Bethpage on Friday morning as his man was playing against Bob MacIntyre, he got lots of backing and shouts and support from American fans who remembered his part in creating the car park incident.
Now it’s on with McIlroy and Lowry due to face the American do in the final game of the afternoon session on Long Island.
McIlroy is in superb fettle having charged to a morning win with Tommy Fleetwood. The duo hammered Collin Morikawa and Harris English and he said: “I think when you’ve got a partner like Tommy you can play with so much freedom and so much trust in your game because you know you have someone that’s going to back you up. That’s the way I felt the two times we played in Rome. Foursomes can be a tough format.
“You can play a little tentative with the way the format is but, again, knowing I have this man beside me, to bail me out if I do hit a bad shot, that’s very comforting to know.”
