McIlroy ‘shot down’ role of Ryder Cup playing captain

Rory McIlroy said he rejected the idea of being a playing captain at a future Ryder Cup “straight away” as he believes it “would be very difficult to do”.

The 36-year-old from Northern Ireland will again spearhead the European challenge at this year’s event which will be staged at Bethpage Black in New York on 26-28 September.

World number 12 Keegan Bradley was picked to captain the United States in July 2024 after 15-time major champion Tiger Woods turned down the role.

But after a strong run of form in 2025 including nine top-20 finishes, the 2011 US PGA champion is 10th in the American rankings for a team that will be made up of six automatic qualifiers and six wildcards.

McIlroy does not believe it is possible to combine the roles of player and captain, and speaking before the start of the BMW Championship in Maryland on Thursday, the Masters champion revealed he had turned down the chance to do so “sometime soon”.

The 2027 Ryder Cup will be held at Adare Manor in the Republic of Ireland.

“I’ve been asked to do that and I’ve turned it down. The idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon has come up and I’ve shot it down straight away,” he said.

There has not been a playing captain at the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer for a victorious American side in 1963.

McIlroy thinks the growth of the event in the decades since means 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,” he said.

“The captain isn’t going to be on the course all day, so the captain is only going to be able to play one session on Friday, one session on Saturday. Would you not rather have the flexibility to go twice if he’s playing well? There’s just a lot of different things that go into it.

“That’s why, and it’s just my opinion, I think it would be very difficult to do.”

McIlroy played with Bradley for the first two rounds of the Travelers Championship in June, a signature event on the PGA Tour that the American won by a stroke over Tommy Fleetwood and Russell Henley.

“I definitely think he’s one of the 12 best American players right now,” McIlroy added.

“That’s why everyone is so interested and it’s such a compelling case.

McIlroy will play with world number one Scottie Scheffler at the BMW Championship, teeing off at 16:16 BST on Thursday.

The event marks McIlroy’s first action since finishing in a tie for seventh at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush in July, after he skipped the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis last week – the opening play-off event of the PGA Tour season.

The five-time major winner was criticised by some sections of the media for missing the event, but defended the decision given his schedule for the remainder of the year.

McIlroy, who also noted that other players “aren’t 18 years into their professional careers”, will play at the Irish Open next month before heading to the DP World India Championship in October and the Australian Open in December.

“I feel like I’m in sort of a different position to some of the guys. I’m playing nine times between now and the end of the year so I’ve still got a pretty busy stretch coming up,” he said.

“I think that extra week off will do me good with the events coming up – some big events that are important to me. Irish Open, [the BMW PGA Championship at] Wentworth, obviously the Ryder Cup, and I want to try and win my seventh Race to Dubai.