Rory McIlroy’s Press Conference | 2025 DP World India Championship

World Number Two Rory McIlroy speaks to the media at Delhi Golf Club ahead of the DP World India Championship.

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This week sees the start of a new chapter in the DP World Tour’s long association with India with the inaugural DP World India Championship. Taking place at the historic Delhi Golf Club and co-sanctioned with the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), the DP World India Championship underscores India’s growing influence as a destination for elite golf. Career Grand Slam winner McIlroy makes his first appearance in India this week with a return to competitive action after helping Europe win the Ryder Cup at Bethpage. With two wins already on the Race to Dubai this season at the Masters Tournament and Amgen Irish Open, the World Number Two will be looking to strengthen his grip on the Race to Dubai title ahead of the DP World Tour Play-Offs. Joining him are Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland and Shane Lowry and Luke Donald. From the U.S. Ryder Cup side, American Major winner Brian Harman and two-time PGA TOUR winner Ben Griffin are in the field hoping to delight the fans in Delhi. The DP World India Championship is the eighth of nine events in the Back 9 on the 2025 Race to Dubai, building towards the season-ending DP World Tour Play-Offs.

Welcome to the Official YouTube channel of the DP World Tour. Every week you can find extended tournament highlights and individual player highlights from the likes of Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood. This is also the home of the 14 Club Challenge, Little Interviews, Fastest Hole and many more challenges, pranks and world record attempts featuring the biggest golfers in the world.

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Hey, welcome everyone. Thank you for coming along and welcome Rory to the media center here at Delhi Golf Club. Um, you’ve been here for a couple of days now in your first trip to India. I wonder if you can just tell us your first impression so far. Yeah. Um, yeah, you know, it’s it’s great to be here first and foremost. Um, India is a a country that I’ve wanted to travel to for a long time and um, yeah, it’s a very it’s a very vibrant place. Um, I haven’t had a chance to to see a lot of the country or a lot of the city, but um, you know, the the welcome has been incredible and um, everyone that I’ve met um, has been has been wonderful and welcoming. So, um, I really appreciate that. And yeah, I’m, you know, I’m excited to to play a golf tournament in a place that I’ve never played before. um you know 18 18 odd years into a professional career and to still be able to do things for the first time is something that um that excites me. Uh and yeah, you know, I’ve I’ve watched this, you know, not this tournament obviously, it’s a new tournament, but I’ve watched tournaments on this golf course over the years on TV and um you know, the course certainly um lives up to its reputation. So, um, excited to get out there and and take it on this week and, uh, yeah, just, you know, excited to get going and, you know, can’t wait to, you know, to play in in front of, um, you know, a lot of a lot of Indian fans that’ll hopefully be out there over the the next few days. Okay, excellent. We’ll go straight to questions. Um, who wants to go first? We’ll go to Joy. Whoever’s closest to the mic. Hi. Hi Rory. Uh you’ve seen the welcome. Um you’ve you’ll see it a lot all all the four days. Uh taking you back to uh the US uh the fan views. Uh I mean did it change you as as a golfer as you as you come to another place? Um I don’t think it No, I don’t think so. you know, I think, you know, obviously it’s been two weeks and, um, I, you know, I’ve been following the the sort of the narrative coming out of the RDER Cup just like everyone else, but, you know, unfortunately, I think it takes away from what we should be focused on is is what an incredible performance it was by by the European team. Um, you know, obviously as I’m playing my matches, I’m focused on trying to win my point. you don’t you know you you see that the other guys are winning their matches or they’re doing well but you don’t realize how well they’re playing. So like you know just over the last two weeks being able to watch the highlights and just see especially those first two days and the the foroms and the four balls just how good the European team were. You know the Americans would hit it close, we would hit it closer, the Americans would hold a putt, we’d hold a putt on top of them and it just happened every single time. And I think the unfortunate thing is it seems like people aren’t remembering that and they’re remembering the the the week for the wrong reasons. So I’d like to shift the narrative a little bit and just focus on how good the European team were and um you know how proud I was to be a part of that team to to win an away rider cup. Okay, we’ll go to Swami. Ronnie, first of all, congratulations again for the Masters, the green jacket and the Rder Cup. My two stock questions are over in the sense when is the next major and when are you coming to India? So now you know I mean at the start of the year it’s always been the desert classic. Can the DP World India Championship become your end of the year kind of thing? It it it kind of you know fits in very nicely with your schedule. Yeah, it absolutely does. Um yeah and I would say as as time goes on my schedule will get um hopefully more international. um because I that’s what I enjoy doing. Um and I’ve always I’ve always said that, but I think over the last few years. Um I’ve I’ve enjoyed it even more. Uh I’ve enjoyed the travel. I’ve enjoyed getting to play in front of um people that I’ve never played in front of before. So um but it does it it fits really nicely. um you know because there is a you know I’ll always go back and play the Irish Open and Wentworth um in in September and then you know you sort of have you know especially in non-riter Cup years you’ve you’ve you know you’ve got some choices to make where do you want to play how much do you want to play do you want to take some time off but um you know this event certainly um you know fits into a nice part of the year one small question did you have any bucket list to do in India apart from play four days Did you have any small bits that you wanted to do in India? You’ve never been. Your man out there has been in India quite a long time. So like did you have any idea? Yeah, I mean I’ I’d love to go and see a cricket game. I’d love to go watch a cricket match. Um I don’t think there’s anything I know IPL isn’t on until next month maybe. Um what’s that? Yeah. So I’d love to come back and do that or I mean I I I’m a bit of a psycho. I love sitting down and watching test matches. So, um, I’ll, you know, I’m going to be in Australia later this year and the Ashes is going to be on. So, that’s something that I’m, you know, I’m quite excited to, um, I don’t think I’ll be able to get to a a game, but at least, you know, with the ashes being on and, you know, you know, it I’d love to be here while a test series is going on between India and England or India and Australia or whatever it is. So, I’d love to do that. Um, obviously the Taj Mahal is something that I would I would love to do. I’d love but I you know I didn’t have time this this year but hopefully if I do come back um in years to come it’ be really nice to bring the family and and to experience that together. Um and yeah I mean it’s it’s obviously a very very big country. There’s a lot to see. I mean obviously you we’re just around Delhi here but you know you head south and you head to you know a lot of other wonderful places and you know I hear down on the you know the sort of southwest coast is beautiful and you know so there there’s so much to see. It’s such a big country but um yeah I guess my immediate thing I’m hoping for right now is as you say you know play a first good two days and at least be here for the weekend and then and then hopefully enjoy the weekend after that. Okay, we’ll go to Joy next. Rory, two questions from me. The first one is very easy. Uh, this golf course, what did you think of it? And, uh, we all know how you drive the ball. Uh, how much of an advantage? Where are you going to hit the driver? And, uh, is that the smartest play on this golf course? Um, I’d say that the the next time I’ll hit my driver, it’ll be in Abu Dhabi. I don’t think I’ll hit a driver this week. It just doesn’t, you know, I just don’t feel like the risk is worth the the reward. Um, I’d rather leave myself two or three clubs back and, you know, hit a seven iron into a par4 instead of hitting a wedge where you you bring, you know, you just get it offline here and and the ball’s gone. You know, you’re you’re hitting it into um jungle and you’re not going to be able to get it out and it just you could you can rack up a very big number very quickly. So, um, you know, being strategic and and being smart with your, um, you know, with with your play off the tea, especially is is very important. Like I see why SSP’s done so well around here, you know, whenever the it’s just it you just keep hitting it down the middle. Hit it 260, 250, 260 every single time. Uh, and if you do that, you know, you then you can do very well around this golf course. And the second question Rory is uh I know you’re a voracious reader. Uh you delve into all kinds of things including culture and philosophy. Has Indian philosophy and some of the mythology ever figured because I’ve heard stories that you uh delved a bit into Bhagat Gita uh before the masters you know uh some of the learnings from that. Is that true? Yeah. Uh I’ve look I there’s there’s um there’s very little I haven’t tried to try to win the Masters. So if I heard they had good ideas on the moon, I’d probably read those, too. But um no, I think uh yeah, I I I I you know, I’ve I’ve I guess I’ve gravitated more towards you know, stoicism and the ancient Greeks and and that sort of stuff more so than than anything else. But um yeah, I I again I think India has a wonderful culture. I think the people are um unbelievably welcoming and hospitable and um and gentle I guess would be you know and it’s um it’s a pleasure to be here and a pleasure to um you know to you know hopefully not you know golf has become quite a big sport in this country but hopefully I can help it become even bigger which which would be a great thing. Okay just over here on the left and I believe you sent me over here. Oh, sorry. Uh, no worries. That uh the Indian Open has not fitted into your schedule. I think you said this earlier this year and you but you would very much like to play the DL of course because you’ve heard so much about it from the other European tour players. So, do you see it happening in sometime now that you’ve ticked off so many boxes over the last few months? Yeah, it’s hard because um you know the the Indian Open is uh is it March or April time? March. It’s just such a, you know, it’s such a hard time of the year to to make it work. We’re over in the States playing the players or Bay Hill or, you know, getting getting ready for the Masters. And it’s just hard to travel across all those time zones and then come back again and and be in the, you know, the I guess just in the right place physically and mentally to to try to go into the first major of the year. So, I’d love to, you know, I’d love to play DF. I think it’s become this like infamous golf course around the world, just the, you know, the bunkering and then that 17th hole seems to be just an absolute menace of a golf hole. So, um, I’d love to get there and play at some point. I don’t think it’ll I don’t think I’ll be able to make it happen this week, but again, if it was something where I come back next year to this event or, you know, I at least I’ll know the golf course here. So, you know, it might give me a free day to go and play BLF on the the Monday or the Tuesday. Okay. Uh Ronny, very quickly, uh you obviously know this is designed by Peter Thomson. Did you see any uh right here, right? Right to your left. Right. Sorry. Did you see any sort of parallels with other Thson crosses you might have? I think the Dukes at uh near the old course is a Thson design. He obviously hit it very straight. I know he won five open championships, but um I I don’t actually don’t know if I’ve played any other Peter Thompson golf courses. So um yeah, this could be the first one. Very well. One more segue. I didn’t want to bring up the Ryder Cup, but you know your comments there about uh golf being a unique sport and how it should be held to a greater standard, higher standard and that’s all true. I just wanted to ask you what do you think about do you think golf can grow in a place without sort of reflecting its that place’s inherent sporting culture so to speak? I mean it’s become extremely arena style almost contact sport like in America. Uh in India we’re still sort of connected with old institutions. You will get thrown off for driving sometimes for not wearing a college t-shirt but no you you’re never going to have like a disrespectful gallery. But insta of course it’s seems almost perfect. But do you think golf can grow and still retain like a universal character as opposed to sort of taking on flavors of different places? I I think it can. I think it can definitely grow. Um, but you also want to keep the traditions and the values that make golf golf. Um, and I think it’s uh, yeah, you don’t want you don’t want to um, you don’t want your sport to be unwelcoming to newcomers. I absolutely get that. Um, but you also don’t want newcomers coming into the game and ruining centuries of traditions and values or what this game represents or what it upholds as well. So, um I think there has to be a balance, but I certainly think that, um, golf can grow, but it it can grow in a way where the people that are coming into the game still, um, respect and acknowledge that this is a little bit different than than maybe other sports. And I think that’s okay. I I don’t um it, you know, I I say in America all the time, golf doesn’t need to be the NFL. It doesn’t need to be these other sports. Golf is golf. And that’s fine. Um, and I think you can see like I think the one great thing about golf as well is it’s a it’s more of a participation sport than other um than other games or sports that are predominantly like like say American football or basketball or you know those are games or those are sports that are mostly watched by people where golf and in some ways cricket in this country they’re they’re games that are that are played paid. So, look, I would love more people to watch golf. That would be amazing. But I would be more interested in getting more people to play the game. And I think when people play the game, then they uh they learn and they can acknowledge what golf is, what it represents, and the, you know, the sort of etiquette and the values that you you need to adhere to when you play the game. Thank you. Okay. Over here on the right. Hi, Rory. Um many congratulations on everything that you’ve achieved in your career, one of the greatest athletes of our generation and um like you said 18 years as a professional. I just want to ask you when you started off the landscape of sport or specifically watching sport was very different from what it is right now. Um, you know, do you think gone are the days when people watched sport for the pure joy of it, just for the love of it as opposed to now watching sport to have an opinion about the player, about the coach, about everything that happens. I specifically asked this because obviously after what happened in Ryder Cup and how volatile the situation got. So do you think it the landscape of watching sport or enjoying watching sport has changed from pure sheer love of it to having an opinion right now? Yeah. So I would say um it’s a it’s a great question. I would say that um deep down at its at its core and and and you know the essence of watching sport is um it’s it’s the realest reality show that we have, right? you know, we don’t know the outcome. We don’t know what’s going to happen. And that’s amazing. There’s very little uh content on on TV nowadays that can actually do that. So, live sport will always be it will always be what it is. And I think I think the majority of sports fans watch it because of that. But yes, there are, you know, you start to see um it’s look, it’s a big business and big business and money comes from having opinions on things and you know, more more eyeballs on things are ultimately a good thing if it can be harnessed the right way. But yeah, it’s definitely changed, you know, and even, you know, whether it’s, you know, people watch sport for the gambling aspect and they put money on games or they, you know, that that is something that, um, especially in America, that’s a that’s a changing landscape. But I think at its core, watching sport, whatever that is, um, is still very pure and it’s still pure competition. And I think that’s that’s an amazing thing. Um, but yeah, as an athlete and you know, knowing that you’re going to get criticized for for your performances, good or bad, or whatever it is, I think it in this at this point in time and in this modern world, um, that’s I wouldn’t say it’s a price to pay, but it’s yeah, it you just it is what it is. Um, and I think athletes nowadays have to do a better job of blocking out the noise. Um, so you know, not going on social media, trying not to read anything about yourself, easier said than done, but I think that the more athletes in this in this uh in this day and age that they can do that, I it’s it’s better I think it’s better for their performance. I think it’s better for their mental health and I think it’s probably better for their longevity and and their given sport as well. Okay, we’re going over here for the last question, please. Hi Rory, first of all, it’s an honor to have you in India. It’s it’s amazing. It’s actually like a dream come true. So I just want to ask you know so McDow described you as the absolute leader in the European Cup in the European team’s locker room and we all know that in the 2027 you turned down the opportunity of being the players championship but is there any is there any possibility of you taking up the European team side of things in the captaincy role sometime? Uh sometime yes uh certainly not 2027. Um, I hope I hope I’m still playing at that point. But yeah, like I I would love to be the European um team captain at some point, but that will be um beyond my playing days or at least when my playing days are coming to an end and I’m not good enough to make the team, you know, or I make way for the the new generation to come along. So, um hopefully that’s not in 2027. and hopefully I’m still good enough to to play and put points on the on the board for Europe. Um but yeah, absolutely. I would I would love to I would love to be a captain one day and I feel very fortunate that I’ve had a front row seat at at um playing under some of the best captains in history in the Ryder Cup. Um while Luke Donald I think what Donald has done the last two Ryder Cups is revolutionized the the captaincy role especially within Europe. Um and then I I feel like Paul McInley and Glenn Eagles in 2014, he was a wonderful captain and I learned a lot from him and you know there’s been wonderful captains between that as well. Um all of them have been have been wonderful but I think the the time and the effort and the dedication that Luke Donald has put into the last four years. Um he it’s been absolutely amazing. He has 100% respect of the entire team and everyone that’s that’s worked um for him and and all been behind him and um you know if I can be you know if I can be nearly as good as a captain as Luke Donald I’ll I’ll have done a good job. So you know hopefully one day in the future but um you know I’d say not until the mid 2030s hopefully if I can keep playing well. Okay, on that note, thank you everyone. Thank you Rory. Good week. Thank you. To watch another DP World Tour video, click here. And to subscribe, click here.