Grand Slam winner Rory McIlroy has admitted that he has turned down the opportunity to take on a playing captain role for Team Europe in future competitions as he believes it would be “very difficult”.
The reigning Masters champion will once again be one of the star players lining up for the Europeans in this year’s highly-anticipated biennial contest this September at Bethpage Black in New York as Team Europe look to win on U.S. soil for the first time since the ‘Miracle at Medinah’ in 2012.
Team USA will be captained by World No. 12 Keegan Bradley, who is currently placed 10th on America’s qualifying list, after what has been a strong year. With the top six gaining automatic places in the team, talk has been whether Bradley would be able to act as a player-captain and take on such a role last done by Arnold Palmer in 1963.
But McIlroy believes that balancing both roles would not be possible after he revealed that he has turned down the idea of him assuming the role for Team Europe in future editions of the event.
“The idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon has come up and I’ve shot it down straight away because I don’t think you can do it,” said the World No. 2, speaking ahead of this weekend’s BMW Championship.
“If you’d have said it 20 years ago I’d say it was probably possible to do, but how big of a spectacle it is and everything that’s on the line in a Ryder Cup now, I just think it would be a very difficult position to be in.
“There’s a lot of things that people don’t see that the captain does the week of the Ryder Cup, especially now that the Ryder Cup has become so big.
“You think about the extra meetings that the captains have to do with the vice captains, with the PGA of America, in Keegan’s case, preparing your speech for the opening ceremony.
“Really, the captain’s only going to be able to play one session on Friday, one session on Saturday. Would you rather not have a player that has the flexibility to go twice if he’s playing well?
“Look, it’s just my opinion, but I think it would just be very difficult to do.”
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler weighed in his opinion on the topic and his team’s chances at the upcoming competition in his press conference ahead of the second event in the FedExCup Playoffs.
“I think if it’s something that Keegan wants to be part of the team and wants to play, I think he’s a guy we’d all love to have on the team.
“The intensity that he’s brought as a captain, he has definitely exceeded my expectations. He’s done a great job.
“He’s passionate about the Ryder Cup. He cares a lot about us as players.
“It’s been a lot of fun kind of watching him develop in this role, and we’re excited to get the Ryder Cup started.”
Bradley has been open to the idea of becoming a player-captain. Speaking in June, asked if there was a chance he would tackle the role, he said: “I don’t know if I’m going to do it or not, but I certainly have to take a pretty hard look at what’s best for the team and we’ll see.”
But ahead of this week’s BMW Championship, Bradley is keen to stay focused on the next couple of events and wait to see whether he will make it in the top 6 before making a decision on if he will pick himself as one of the captain’s picks.
“We’re ready for this if it happens. I’m not sure it’s going to. I can truly sit here right now and say I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have to look at myself just like any other player trying to make the team. I’m 10th in points right now, and that’s not sixth.”