At some point in his illustrious golf career, Rory McIlroy will captain Team Europe at the Ryder Cup. We can say with a significant amount of certainty that won’t happen in 2027.
McIlroy is returning to the course this week for the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs. After skipping the opener, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, McIlroy will tee it up in the BMW Championship at Caves Valley Golf Club.
And while he’ll likely be locked in on earning a significant chunk of the $20 million purse ahead of the Tour Championship in Atlanta, McIlroy also has the Ryder Cup on his mind. The 2025 edition is rapidly approaching, with McIlroy leading the Europeans into battle at Bethpage Black in late September.
Rory McIlroy Rules Out Taking On Ryder Cup Captain Role (for Now)
McIlroy will do so solely as a player, arguably Europe’s best player, and that’s more than enough for him at this point. In a pre-tournament press conference ahead of the BMW, though, he admitted the European Ryder Cup faction has already approached him about being a playing captain.
That, McIlroy said, will not be happening.
“I’ve been asked to do that, and I’ve turned it down,” he told reporters. “The idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon coming up has come up, and I’ve shot it down straight away.”
McIlroy didn’t mention any specifics, but reading between the lines, he’s likely talking about the 2027 Ryder Cup. “Sometime soon” is a bit of a giveaway, and the 2027 Ryder Cup will be played at Adare Manor, in Ireland. The resort is owned by J.P. McManus, who is good friends with McIlroy. In fact, McManus is good friends with Tiger Woods, too, and the all-time legend is already a rumored option to captain Team USA in 2027.
Pitting McIlroy against Woods in that regard would leave golf fans — and those who stand to most profit off the Ryder Cup — drooling.
However, McIlroy won’t be partaking, at least as long as he’s healthy and good enough to play, and his health and form aren’t likely to abandon him in the next two years. Asked why the idea was a non-starter, McIlroy had a straightforward response.
“Because I don’t think you can do it,” he said flatly.
Keegan Bradley Contemplating His Own Captaincy Decision
That specific debate won’t be settled anytime soon, though. That’s because Keegan Bradley, set to captain Team USA in September, is still presumably toying with the idea of being a playing captain.
It sounds like McIlroy, as a competitor, would love to see Bradley name himself to the team.
“I just think the commitments that a captain has the week of — you think about the extra media that a captain has to do, 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 — just 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,” McIlroy said.
That being said, McIlroy also said he believes Bradley is one of the 12 best American players right now, which makes you wonder if it’s a cheeky challenge on the part of the most recent Masters champion.
“If you’d have said it 20 years ago, I’d say, yeah, it was probably possible to do, but how big of a spectacle 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,” McIlroy said.
It won’t be long before the mystery surrounding Bradley is settled. The top six players are locked in after the BMW Championship, and Bradley’s captain’s picks are expected to be announce a week later.
There’s no such suspense for McIlroy now or in the future, though — that much is clear.
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