McIlroy ready for reception for U.S. fans!

Photo credit: Michael Reaves/PGA of America

Here is Rory McIlroy’s press conference before the Ryder Cup!

THE MODERATOR: Rory McIlroy is with us now at the 2025 Ryder Cup.

Rory, welcome to your eighth Ryder Cup. We’ll go ahead and get started with questions.

Question: Winning these things at home is obviously a great experience but it’s winning away that makes absolute legends, I guess. What is it about this particular group that gives you confidence that you can do that this week?

RORY McILROY: You know, the one thing that I’ve talked about a lot going into this Ryder Cup is I love the continuity of this team. I love that 11 of the 12 are the same as we had in Rome and the 12th has the same DNA as the other one.

We’ve won before. I feel like it’s been a really cohesive group for the last three years. We all know what to expect. We all know what our roles are within the team. I think that that has us prepared to give it a really good go this week. Look, historic — or over the past, you know, basically since 2012, you look at the results of the Ryder Cup, the home team has won every time. But they also have won convincingly. You know, it’s been pretty one-sided either way.

So whatever team, whether that’s Europe or America that is the one to break that, that duck, I think honestly is going to go down as one of the best teams in Ryder Cup history. And Luke said it in his opening remarks yesterday, but we are here and we are playing for history and we’re playing for the players that came before us and the people that basically laid the foundations for what the European Ryder Cup Team are.

But we are also playing for the guys that are going to come behind us, as well, the young boys that are dreaming of becoming European Ryder Cup players. We want to try to leave a legacy for them as well.

We have a wonderful opportunity this week but we also understand it’s going to be very difficult.

Question: What advice have you given to the younger guys about not just playing a Ryder Cup but playing one in the United States?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, look, I think everyone has to find their own balance of what works for them or what — you know, we’re playing in an environment that we are not really used to or we don’t get to play in very often. I’m very lucky, I get a lot of support pretty much everywhere I go when I play golf, and it’s going to feel a little different for me this week.

But that’s to be expected, and that’s totally understandable. I feel at times in the Ryder Cup, I have engaged too much with that, too much with the crowd. But then there’s times where I haven’t engaged enough. So it’s really just trying to find the balance of using that energy from the crowd to fuel your performance.

I felt like at Hazeltine, I probably engaged too much at times, and then Whistling Straits, I didn’t engage enough and felt pretty flat because of it. It’s just trying to find that balance.

I can’t tell anyone on the team what that balance is. They really have to find it themselves. But that’s the challenge of playing away, right. You’re not just trying to perform to your best level, but someone in the American Team holes a putt, and then you have to try to follow them in. But you know, you’ve got the crowd going crazy and you’re waiting for them to quiet. There’s a lot of little things like that that I guess takes you out of your normal routine that you just have to deal with, and that’s part of the challenge of this week.

Question: What were your impressions as a kid of America, growing up, and now having lived here for so long, how is it similar or different than what you thought it would be like?

RORY McILROY: Everyone wanted to make it in America. It’s the land of opportunity. And I still believe it’s the best country in the world, and if you come here and work hard and dedicate yourself, you can be or do whatever you want.

I am unbelievably grateful and lucky that I got to come to America early on. I think success is celebrated here. I think there’s a wonderful sense of work ethic. And yeah, I live here. My wife is American. My daughter is American. I have a lot of affinity towards this country, and I think everyone that lives here should have that same affinity because it is, it’s a wonderful — it is a wonderful place.

Question: Everyone loves the rivalries of the Ryder Cup. Bryson said he’s going to be chirping in your ear. He says that he only says your name to get attention. Is this early mind games? Have you got a message back for him or Team USA?

RORY McILROY: I promised Luke I would only talk about the European Team today. I’m going to stick to it.

No, look, I think, again, it’s so easy to play into narratives this week and to get swept up in this whole rivalries and Ryder Cup and whatever it is. All I want to do is go and try and put blue points on the board. I don’t care who it’s against. If I come up against Bryson at some point, I think that’s great. I think that’s wonderful for the championship and wonderful for us, as well, in some ways.

I just want to go out there and put blue points on the board and do what I can for the European Team.

Question: Can you recall your first Ryder Cup, 2010, was there a moment where it struck you, this is different, this is special, whatever it might have been, maybe a match or a team room type of thing, that kind of got you thinking, this is going to be something I really want to embrace?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think it’s more the behind-the-scenes stuff: The team room, the team talks, how much — I think for me, going in as a complete rookie — look, I watched Ryder Cups growing up. I cried whenever America won at Brookline. Like it’s not as if I didn’t feel something when I watched Ryder Cups.

But I don’t know, I just — I got into that team room at Celtic Manor and I just saw how much it meant to everyone. I sort of started — I was like, maybe I got this wrong.

You start to see how much — yeah, especially for Europeans.

I remember Seve was sick, and we had him on one of those conference call things like back in the day. He’s speaking to the team, and we’re all in the team room. This is on like the Wednesday or Thursday night. You know, and I look around and the majority of the team is crying as Seve is talking to us.

And I’m like, that is — that’s it. That’s the embodiment of what the European Ryder Cup Team is. I think that was the moment, that conference call with Seve in 2010, was the moment for me.

Question: The fans helped make this event what it is. How do you feel when you hear the football-style chanting, and do you have a favorite song?

RORY McILROY: It’s amazing. And I think, as well, growing up as a fan of football and going to United games and hearing those songs and having those songs — having the tune the same but the lyrics changed into something that has something to do with you. As a boy, I dreamt of playing at Old Trafford and having those songs sung about me. I just didn’t know they would be sang to me on a golf course.

They are very creative. They are amazing. Obviously you won’t hear it as much this week, but it’s still amazing. I think the last Ryder Cup we played at Whistling Straits, because it was off the back of COVID, we didn’t have any support, really, there. I feel like we’re at least going to have some this week.