‘It resonated with a lot of people': Rory McIlroy reflects on his Masters win, prepares for Zurich
Rory McIlroy is barely a week and a half from the defining victory of his professional life, and he's still riding the shock waves and coasting on the glory of a green jacket.
'It's not every day you get to fulfill one of your lifelong goals and dreams,' he said Wednesday, 'and I've just really tried to enjoy everything that comes along with that.'
The Masters win stands as one of the most notable in recent golf history, and to McIlroy, who spent more than 10 years trying to win a major and a lifetime trying to win the Masters, that's because it wasn't just about golf.
'I think people can see themselves in the struggle at times, and everything that you sort of try to put into getting the best out of yourself in that journey,' he said. 'I think people watching someone finally get it done, something they've been trying to do for a decade-plus, I think it resonated with a lot of people.'
Although he's now got a fancy new jacket, he's also still got a day job, and that brought him to New Orleans this weekend for the Zurich Classic. He and Ryder Cup teammate/best pal Shane Lowry are the defending champions at the pairs event, and they're hoping to replicate the success that had them singing 'Don't Stop Believin'' karaoke last year:
This is not a drill. Rory McIlroy singing Don't Stop Believing pic.twitter.com/y5PkEDoqo4
— Brody Miller (@BrodyAMiller) April 28, 2024
'This tournament last year was a really cool moment for both of us. I think it probably injected a little bit of joy back into golf for me in some way, which I think is really, really important, not to lose that,' McIlroy said. 'I had a great year last year, and I think this tournament was sort of the catalyst to the really good golf that I played for the rest of the year.'
Last year's event brought out 116,000 fans to TPC Louisiana, and this year's version is likely to match that number since McIlroy is in the field … and stayed in the tournament despite winning the Masters.
Lowry laughed about that, saying he remembered standing on the 15th at Augusta National on Sunday, watching the leaderboard and remarking to his caddie that the Zurich date might be in doubt. 'If things didn't go his way, I don't think he'd want to be here,' Lowry said, 'and I thought if things did go his way, he'd want to be somewhere else. But I'm happy he's here.'
'That was one of the things Shane said to me that night, like, 'Are you still wanting to come and play Zurich?'' McIlroy said. 'I said, absolutely. We're defending a title. We had so much fun last year here. Obviously, it's important for me to honor that commitment.'
Both recalled their Sunday at Augusta. Lowry had been in contention, but played himself out of the tournament with an ugly Sunday 81.
'Honestly, it was one of the weirdest days ever for me because you're out there trying to win the Masters yourself,' he remembered, 'but then when one of your close friends does it, you have no choice but to be happy for him because it is a great occasion. I think it's a great occasion for golf, for everybody in golf.'
'I do think that the whole day on Sunday at Augusta, I don't think I'll have to ever play a harder round of golf in my life,' McIlroy said. 'I certainly don't want to be placed back on that 15th tee box on that Sunday afternoon.'
After he survived that 15th — and a few more challenges besides that — McIlroy finally claimed the green jacket. Since then, he's heard from two presidents and a range of sports and cultural figures, flown across the ocean, and now must figure out what to do with the rest of his golf life.
'I think Rory's goals are, who cares anymore?' Lowry joked, throwing up his hands. 'He can take it easy for a while.'
'I care,' McIlroy insisted, and no one doubts that. Still, for the first time in more than a decade, the pressure is off … at least until the next major rolls around, and the talk of a 2025 grand slam ramps up.
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USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Schupak: Keegan Bradley must play at 2025 Ryder Cup, but he doesn't have to be captain, too
It was always going to come down to this – should U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Keegan Bradley pick himself to be on the 12-man team later this year at Bethpage? After his victory at the Travelers Championship on Sunday, the answer has to be an emphatic yes. I have this conspiracy theory that European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald showed up at fellow Englishman Tommy Fleetwood's room on Saturday night and told him he had to take a knee on Sunday – wait until you're a couple up with three to play just to make it look dramatic – so that Bradley would have no choice but to pick himself. Donald told Fleetwood to do it for Team Europe. The Euros, the current Cup holders, are playing chess not checkers. For a fleeting moment, it looked as if Fleetwood would go rogue and win but his winless streak on the PGA Tour continues and now the Bradley playing captain talk has reached a fever pitch. During his press conferences over the weekend, Bradley noted it was a year ago on Sunday after he had arrived at his New England summer home that then-PGA CEO Seth Waugh called around 8 o'clock and offered him the captaincy. Waugh also said he hoped he played well enough to be the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963. 'My head was spinning, I didn't know what they were talking about, but they knew that that was a possibility and that we would have things in place for that,' Bradley said on Sunday. 'But you know I'm always trying to be the best that I can be, and I feel like I'm playing the best golf of my career right now.' Indeed, he is. Bradley notched his eighth Tour title with an improbable comeback to edge Fleetwood. He improved to a career-best ranking of No. 7 in the world. 'I never would have thought about playing if I hadn't won. This definitely opens the door to play. I don't know if I'm going to do it or not, but I certainly have to take a pretty hard look at what's best for the team and we'll see. It's still June, so we still got a long ways to go. This definitely changes things a little bit, and we'll all get together and figure out the best way to do this,' he said. Bradley shot up eight spots in the U.S. Ryder Cup point standings and sits No. 9. Only the top six automatically qualify so he still has some work to do there. Originally, when he was announced as captain, Bradley said he would need to be an automatic pick – that even if he finished seventh he wouldn't select himself. On Wednesday, during a phone interview with Bradley, I asked him if the six auto qualifiers unanimously voted in favor of selecting him as a pick what would he do and he responded, 'this is such a boring answer, but I really feel an obligation to be the captain. I almost feel weird about even letting my brain think about being a player because I feel like I owe it to the guys to lead them as the captain but you know if I have to do as of right now I wouldn't, but if I were to win or play really well coming down the stretcher – if something like that happens, we'll have to reconsider it, but I mean I would need to win some tournaments.' He's won one now. His response on Sunday night was telling: 'Every year I was out here I wanted to play on the Ryder Cup team, and then this would be the first year where maybe I didn't want to. I just wanted to be the captain and, of course, you know, this is what happens. But we'll see. I'm going to do whatever I think is best for the team,' he said. 'This certainly changes a lot of things. I was never going to play on the team unless I had won a tournament and so that's changed, but we'll see.' What he 'owes to the guys' is to put the best team on the field. I asked him about rookies making the team and his response spoke volumes: 'We want the 12 best players, I don't care how many Ryder Cups they've played in, where they play, if you're one of the 12 best Americans and we feel like you can help us win I don't care if you're a rookie, LIV, PGA Tour, it doesn't matter to me.' At this stage in the game, based on current form, there's no team construct of the top 12 Americans that doesn't include Bradley, the world No. 7. CBS's Trevor Immelman, who captained the 2022 International Team at the Presidents Cup, said it best: 'You can not even start an argument with me trying to explain that [Keegan Bradley] is not one of the 12 best American golfers in the world. In my opinion, he is one of the top 6 or 7.' The first playing captain since 1963 is a fun talking point for the Ryder Cup build up but having Bradley try to do both roles is a fool's errand. It's not rocket science but it's also become too big a job at this point. Veteran caddie and NBC commentator John Wood, who was named U.S. team manager, a newly created role, just over a year ago, surely will handle some of the grunt work. But Bradley has said that he doesn't want to give the captaincy title up and he will rely on his vice captains, who include Jim Furyk, the losing captain in 2018 and the winning captain of the Presidents Cup last year; Brandt Snedeker, who will serve as Presidents Cup captain in 2026; and Kevin Kisner and Webb Simpson, who both have some backroom experience and have played on U.S. teams. Bradley likely will lean on Furyk, whom he called, 'an incredible voice in my ear with so much experience.' 'Jim Furyk was one of my heroes growing up,' Bradley told me. 'It's surreal for me to talk to him now.' Two other names to ponder as the Ryder Cup talk heats up: Tiger Woods passed on the job this go-round because he was too busy with his Tour board role but some of the heavy-lifting such as the hiring of Brian Rolapp is behind them and it sure feels like he could step in at the 11th hour and Team USA would play their hearts out for him. And then what about reaching back to the past to arguably the best U.S. captain of the past 30 years, who won't be busy this time broadcasting the matches? Bradley ought to reach out to Paul Azinger, the winning captain in 2008. There's a guy who had a system that worked and got the most out of the likes of Boo Weekely and J.B. Holmes. Mark it down that Bradley is going to play but he doesn't have to stretch himself so thin that he can't perform well in either role. Team USA needs the guy who wasn't afraid to step up on 18 and rip driver to the fairway, stick a 9-iron to 5 feet and make birdie to steal victory from Fleetwood winning points at Bethpage. Bradley's suitcase from the 2012 Ryder Cup defeat at Medinah still sits unpacked in his garage and he said he looks at it every day. He's poured his heart into being U.S. Ryder Cup in September but he can be a more effective leader as a member of the U.S.'s 12-man team than slapping butts and being a cheerleader as Captain Keegan. If he really wants to unpack all that Ryder Cup baggage he's been carrying around since 2012, he knows what he needs to do.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Keegan Bradley Makes Revelation on Wife Jillian Bradley After Travelers Championship Win
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Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Keegan Bradley 'Changes the Story' on Playing Ryder Cup Captain
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