Rory McIlroy sees himself as 'big brother' to likes of Bob MacIntyre in Europe's Ryder Cup team

At 34 and with flecks of grey in his hair, Rory McIlroy concedes he’s now one of the senior statesmen in Europe’s Ryder Cup team room, though don’t be fooled into thinking that means he is ready to be a father-figure to the likes of Bob MacIntyre, Ludvig Aberg and Nicolai Hojgaard in Rome in a fortnight’s time.

Rory McIlroy speaks in a press conference prior to the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club in Virginia Water. Picture: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images.

“Older brother,” said a smiling McIlroy, speaking as he prepared to join his 11 team-mates in the $9 million BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, in reply to that tag being suggested to him as the Northern Irishman prepares to face the Americans for a seventh time in the biennial event at Marco Simone Golf Club.

Sitting in the same spot in the media centre for the Rolex Series tournament at the Surrey venue 12 months ago, McIlroy had talked openly about how he hoped the likes of MacIntyre and the Hojgaard twins, Nicolai and Rasmus, could be the “future of the European Ryder Cup team” in the wake of Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter effectively ending their playing careers in the match by joining LIV Golf.

It’s been mission accomplished at the first attempt by MacIntyre and one of the Hojgaards, with Aberg, who recently won on the DP World Tour in just his ninth start as a professional, and Sepp Straka being the other European rookies for the 44th edition on the outskirts of the Italian capital.

“Yeah, it's a transitional time for the European Ryder Cup team,” said McIlroy. “There's guys that have been amazing Ryder Cuppers for two decades, basically, and, unfortunately, things move on and you need to try to bring in some fresh talent. We certainly have that this year and it’s exciting.”

Referring to a team get-together in Rome earlier in the week, the world No 2 added: “I think the thing which has been nice and refreshing is that I felt like the 12 of us are on the same level, there's no type of hierarchy on the team.

"I remember the 2012 Ryder Cup, I went in there, No 1 player in the world, I had won two majors in the last two years, and I still didn't feel like I could speak up in the team room. In this team, it doesn't feel like that, which I think is really good.”

As for his own role, McIlroy summed it up perfectly. “I don't think any of these guys need their hand held in any way,” he stressed. “I'd rather them look across to me than look up at me, if that makes sense. No one is more important than anyone else.”

At a dinner in Rome on Monday night, McIlroy was one of the players who said a few words. “Yeah, I told a story to the team about watching Brookline in '99 on TV and crying after America came back and Europe lost, and obviously I cried in Whistling Straits in 2021, so not much has changed,” he revealed.

That was a reference to an emotional TV interview at the end of a disappointing week for him personally and also from a team perspective as the US won 19-9. “That emotion was real,” he said. “It is by far the best experience in sport and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with your team-mates in an environment like that is, I think, the epitome of what competition and what sport is.”