ROME — There was barely a European fingerprint on the Ryder Cup the Europeans won on Sunday before Rory McIlroy, one of their best, most polarizing players, delivered a guarantee that would make Joe Namath blush.
“I’ve said this for the last probably six or seven years to anyone that will listen: I think one of the biggest accomplishments in golf right now is winning an away Ryder Cup,’’ McIlroy said. “And that’s what we’re going to do at Bethpage.’’
Boom.
Bethpage Black is where the next Ryder Cup will be played — in 2025.
The American team hasn’t won on European soil since 1993. The last time Europe won the cup in America was in 2012, thanks to a massive comeback in Sunday singles after trailing 10-6.
They’ll surely have a large bulletin board at Bethpage, where that McIlroy quote will be blown up in two years’ time.
McIlroy, after the matches were finished, acknowledged that he and Patrick Cantlay’s caddie Joe LaCava had texted with each other and cleared the air after emotions escalated from a celebration incident on the 18th green following the final match on the course Saturday evening.
LaCava had waved his hat in celebration after the hatless Cantlay, who’d been abused for four hours by European fans, ran in a 43-foot birdie putt. McIlroy was lining his birdie attempt up and felt LaCava was invading his personal space. There were words between McIlroy and his caddie, Harry Diamond, with LaCava, who also got an earful from Shane Lowry.
Shortly after the match, there was TV footage from the player parking lot of McIlroy screaming at Jim “Bones’’ Mackay before having to be restrained by Lowry.
“Yeah, I text Bones this morning,’’ McIlroy said. “He was the first American I saw after I got out of the locker room, so he was the one that took the brunt of it. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was directed at Joe but said at Bones. But Joe wasn’t there. I texted Bones this morning and apologized for that.
“I was hot coming out of that yesterday. I was pretty angry. I didn’t agree with what happened on 18, but I think I let it fuel the fire today and it focused me and I was able to go out there and get my point.’’
There was an NBC report early on Sunday that said LaCava and McIlroy met before the singles matches, but McIlroy said that was untrue.
“We texted,’’ McIlroy said of LaCava. “We haven’t seen each other face-to-face, but we’ve texted, and everything will be fine. But it’s a point of contention and it still hurts, but time is a great healer and we’ll all move on.’’
LaCava, when approached after Cantlay’s singles match, told a reporter that U.S. captain Zach Johnson instructed him not to talk about the incident.
“We talked about it as a team last night,’’ McIlroy said. “We felt like it was disrespectful, and it wasn’t just disrespectful to Fitz [his partner Matt Fitzpatrick] and I. It was disrespectful to the whole team. I get that we get the banter when we go over to the States and play, and you know, the same happens here. It’s just the way it is. It the way the Ryder Cup goes. You have to have thick skin.’’
Luke Donald, the European captain, was highly emotional after the matches.
“Since I got this job 14 months ago, this is something I always dreamed about,’’ Donald said through tears. “It was an honor and privilege to captain these 12 incredible guys. They played their hearts out. It’s been a weight of emotions, asking myself if I can do this. Just proud, proud, proud moment.’’
Donald was a replacement captain for Henrik Stenson, who was stripped of his duties when he joined the LIV Golf tour. Donald was 10-4-1 as a player and never played on a losing team. Now he’s never captained one.
Cantlay, after his eventful Ryder Cup, is getting married in Rome on Monday. … The American Ryder Cup rookies went 7-6-2 while Europe’s went 5-6-2. The six U.S. captain’s picks combined to go 4-12-4 while Europe’s went 8-9-3.
