Ryder Cup: Rory McIlroy tearfully apologizes for his performance

Enlarge image

Rory McIlroy at the Ryder Cup in Sheboygan on Lake Michigan

Photo: BRIAN SNYDER / REUTERS

It was a debacle for Team Europe, the 9:19 defeat on the weekend at Lake Michigan was the biggest bankruptcy of the Europeans since 1979, the year in which the USA first faced Europe.

A triumph for the USA, the US superstars from Bryson DeChambeau to Collin Morikawa and Brooks Koepka to Jordan Spieth delivered their performance to the cheers of 40,000 local golf fans and brought the trophy back to the USA.

And yet it was a professional from the defeated team who then owned the sympathy and the headlines.

Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland's golf hero, could not prevent the defeat at his sixth Ryder Cup participation either, after which he tearfully apologized for his poor performance in interviews with TV channels Sky and CBS.

"I'm extremely disappointed that I couldn't do more for the team," he said in front of the TV cameras and had to interrupt the interview several times.

"I've never cried or been really emotional about what I did as an individual athlete," said the four-time major winner, "but this is by far the biggest competition we have in golf."

McIlroy was not nominated for Saturday by team captain Padraig Harrington due to his mediocre form, something that had never happened to the 32-year-old in his Ryder Cup career since 2010.

On Sunday he managed at least one point win for the Europeans in a duel with US Olympic champion Xander Schauffele.

In front of the press, McIlroy said he was "incredibly proud to be part of this team."

The traditional team competition, it is »inspiration for so many boys and girls« to play the Ryder Cup or the variant for women, the Solheim Cup, at some point.

McIlroy hadn't always thought this way: in 2009 he still said: "The Ryder Cup is not one of my big goals." He was probably referring to this when he said: "I've said a lot of naive and stupid things in the past."

Aha