Rory McIlroy turned down Ryder Cup offer as he tells rival: ‘It’s not possible’

Rory McIlroy has been asked if he would consider being a playing captain in the Ryder Cup in the future, but the Northern Irishman quickly shot down the idea

Masters champion Rory McIlroy has revealed that he has already “shot down” the suggestion of serving as a playing Ryder Cup captain in the future.

The Northern Irish star, who topped Europe’s points list during their victory in Rome two years ago, said the idea had been raised with him, but he dismissed it straight away.

At 36 years old and currently ranked world No. 2, McIlroy still has plenty of years left at the top of the game, though his stance creates a tactical challenge for US captain Keegan Bradley, whose excellent season has lifted him to 12th in the world rankings and 10th in the American qualification table.

“I’ve been asked to do that and I’ve turned it down,” said McIlroy, the first player to secure automatic selection for Europe’s team for next month’s contest at Bethpage in New York. “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.

“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. 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?”

This Thursday, McIlroy will begin play alongside world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler in the BMW Championship at Caves Valley Golf Club near Baltimore. He chose to skip the FedEx Cup’s opening tournament, knowing he was already assured of a place in the season-ending Tour Championship, a decision that drew some criticism.

McIlroy defended the move, saying his schedule is still packed. Beyond the Ryder Cup, he will return to the DP World Tour for several tournaments, including the Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, before attempting to secure his seventh Race to Dubai title in November.

“A lot of the guys aren’t 18 years into their professional career. I feel like I’m in a little bit of a different position,” he explained. “I’m playing nine times between now and the end of the year, so I’ve still got a pretty busy stretch coming up and I just think that extra week off will do me good with the events coming up.”

Justin Rose’s playoff win over JJ Spaun on Sunday secured his Ryder Cup spot, but the English veteran said he had avoided putting excessive pressure on himself after receiving early encouragement from captain Luke Donald.

“Their preference was for me to be on the team, I just needed to kind of give them some decent evidence to sort of get me on the team,” Rose said.

“I haven’t been putting myself under a lot of pressure really because of that, because I felt like playing a little bit better in Scotland and the Open was sort of enough to make sure they knew my game was still right there.”