VIRGINIA WATER, England – Rory McIlroy believes it will be difficult for Ian Poulter or Lee Westwood to become Ryder Cup captains of the future because they no longer have contact with Europe’s rising stars after defecting from the LIV Golf League.
Poulter was the European player in the Ryder Cups and often saves his best performances for the team event, scoring 16 points in seven games.
Now playing on the LIV Golf circuit, Poulter said in a recent interview with Al Arabiya English that he would relish the chance to captain a European team – although that would not happen yet because he resigned his European Tour membership after joining LIV. Golf.
McIlroy said the likes of Poulter and Westwood would find it difficult to regroup after a bad split on the European Tour and pointed to current Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald’s efforts to meet with the team’s best players ahead of last year’s games against the United States outside Rome.
“You look at what Luke has done the last few years. He’s really made an effort to come. He’s played in the Czech Republic. He’s been in Switzerland,” McIlroy said Wednesday, speaking ahead of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. “He makes an effort to be among the players and make the players feel comfortable when they are with him, the newcomers who have not yet had the opportunity to be in the team or try to make a team.
“And the guys that have gone, Poulter, Westwood, these up-and-comers, you know, how can they build a relationship with them without being here? You won’t see them. I think the most important part is the Ryder Cup and the captain of the Ryder Cup.”
McIlroy said he did not deny that Poulter “has the credentials” to captain the Ryder Cup, given his passion for the event and past results.
“But I just think with the way everything is now, you need someone as close to showing their face as possible,” McIlroy said of the LIV Golf Rebels. “Right now, that honestly can’t be them because they’re somewhere else.”
Jon Rahm, another player who joined LIV Golf, has a chance to be considered for next year’s Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black after officially serving a European Tour ban against him for playing on the LIV circuit. That allows him to continue playing on the European tour and reach the minimum four starts required to remain eligible for the Ryder Cup.
McIlroy said Rahm “follows the rules” and “will be a great addition to the European team” given his performance at LIV Golf.
Rahm won every title in his first season with LIV Golf.
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