‘Wrong reason’: Rory McIlroy reveals ‘unfortunate’ part of Ryder Cup aftermath

At the 2025 Ryder Cup, world number 2 Rory McIlroy was at the center of the chaos that unfolded at Bethpage Black, both inside and outside the ropes. And while McIlroy’s stellar play helped the European team to a dramatic away win, more attention has been paid to misbehaving fans who abused Rory, his wife and the Europeans all week on Long Island.

McIlroy is attuned to this reality and explained the “unfortunateness” of it on Wednesday ahead of the India 2025 DP World Cup.

Rory says he watched the Ryder Cup highlights

McIlroy will play in India for the first time this week, in one of the final events of the DP World Tour season. Currently he dominates the The DP World Tour season rankingsas he eyes his fourth Race to Dubai title in a row and his seventh overall.

It’s also his first time competing since the Ryder Cup, which was an emotional whirlwind for the five-time major champion.

With the exception of a large portion of Sunday’s singles matches, the narrative on the Ryder Cup scorecard was one of European domination. That much was clear to anyone watching the action on TV Friday or Saturday.

But as the lead character in the drama, McIlroy couldn’t watch it live on TV. He was busy winning his matches.

“Obviously, as I play my matches, I’m focused on trying to win my point. You know, you see the other guys winning their matches or doing well, but you don’t realize how well they’re playing,” McIlroy said.

However, since the end of the Ryder Cup, McIlroy has been able to revisit the highlights and get a full picture of how great his team played over the first two days at Bethpage.

“So over the last two weeks I’ve been able to watch the highlights and see, especially those first two days, in the fours and the four-balls how good the European team was,” he revealed on Wednesday. “The Americans hit it close; we hit it closer. The Americans holed a putt and we holed a putt on top, and it happened every time.”

But the reigning Masters champion also identified a problem that has been bothering him since the end of the Ryder Cup.

McIlroy laments what was lost in the post-Ryder Cup reporting

The inexcusable abuse McIlroy and company suffered during the three days of competition at Bethpage Black is well known. McIlroy’s emotional reactions at the most heated moments, as well as his and his teammates’ comments during the Ryder Cup winner’s press conference, spoke volumes.

And partly because of that, spectators’ poor behavior has dominated post-event coverage of the Ryder Cup, just as the European team did on the course.

On Wednesday, McIlroy acknowledged this without directly mentioning the volatile atmosphere at the Ryder Cup.

“I’ve been following the kind of story that comes out of the Ryder Cup, just like everyone else,” he said.

Then he started explaining the flip side of that prevailing narrative.

“But unfortunately I think it takes away from what we have been focusing on, which is the incredible performance of the European team.”

He went on to lament that people are commemorating this year’s Ryder Cup for the “wrong reason” and that he hopes to change that.

“The unfortunate thing is that people don’t remember that and they remember the week for the wrong reason,” McIlroy explains. “I would like to change the narrative and focus on how good the European team was and how proud I was to be part of that team and win an away Ryder Cup.”

And they won. Despite a furious US comeback on Sunday, Rory and the Europeans secured a 15-13 victory, their second in a row. It was also Europe’s sixth win in the last eight Ryder Cups, and ninth in the last twelve.

As for McIlroy, who won the Irish Open in his last professional start, he will start his opening round at the 2025 DP World India Championship on Wednesday night at 9:55pm ET alongside Ryder Cup teammate Viktor Hovland and American Ryder Cupper Ben Griffin.

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