Returning Rory McIlroy shares shock at Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup captaincy

Rory McIlroy believes the United States will have to swap Ryder Cup captains if Keegan Bradley qualifies to play at Bethpage next year. Bradley, who is 38, was the shock choice to lead the US after Tiger Woods turned down the opportunity. McIlroy said the news was met with “disbelief” when their captain, Luke Donald, broke the news to European players at a dinner on Sunday.

As a current player, the possibility of Bradley combining roles in New York has been raised. McIlroy considers such a scenario impossible; the idea was even put to the Northern Irishman in relation to the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor, but he immediately ruled it out.

Asked if it would be feasible to play and captain a team, McIlroy said: “No. Absolutely not. I’ve thought about it for Adare and no, there’s too much work involved. I’ve seen what Luke has gone through to prepare for Rome [last year] and there’s no way. There’s no way you can be as good a captain as you need to be and still be a player.”

Asked about the Adare situation, McIlroy explained: “It’s been mentioned and I just said ‘No way’. If you want to be the best captain you can be, you can’t play and if you want to be the best player you can be, you can’t be captain. It’s one or the other, especially with how big the Ryder Cup has become and how many things you have to do in the lead up to or the week of the event.

“Keegan is the 19th player in the world so he has a great chance of making the team. If he does, I think he should give that captaincy role to one of his vice-captains.”

McIlroy shared the surprise that Bradley’s announcement usually brings. “I think Keegan was probably in disbelief at one point, but it’s certainly an interesting choice,” McIlroy said.

“It’s an interesting appointment. The youngest captain since Arnold Palmer, who I think was a playing captain at 34. But he knows Bethpage very well. He went to university in the area. He’s clearly very passionate about the Ryder Cup. It’s certainly a departure from what the US has been doing in recent years and time will tell whether that’s a good thing or not.”

McIlroy was understandably in high spirits after opening his defence of the Scottish Open with a five-under-par 65, his first appearance on the course since the US Open eluded him at Pinehurst last month.

“My game feels pretty good in training the last 10 days since I picked up the clubs,” McIlroy said. “The last time I played, I played well, obviously. I didn’t get the result I wanted, but I’m still pretty confident in my game. I took a timeout today and shot a solid score. A couple that I would have liked to drop to get a few strokes down, but overall it was a great start to the tournament.”