Winning A Ryder Cup Away 'One Of The Biggest Achievements In Golf' - McIlroy

After four straight comprehensive home wins, Rory McIlroy says winning a Ryder Cup on the road is "probably one of the biggest achievements in golf"

Rory McIlroy at the 2023 Ryder Cup
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Although players from Europe and America have never been closer in terms of friendships and their playing styles, winning the Ryder Cup away from home is still “probably one of the biggest achievements in golf right now” according to Rory McIlroy.

Winning the Ryder Cup on foreign soil has always been a tough prospect, with Europe winning four of the 11 played in American since 1979, while the USA have an even worse record with just two victories in 10 away.

The last four have been home wins, but the striking point is the margin of victories in those four homes wins, with two five-point victories followed by Europe’s dominant seven-point success in Paris and then a record 10-point hammering at Whistling Straits.

Teams change, and courses can be set up to help the home players, but that can only be a small part of things as McIlroy points out that most of the European players now operate on the PGA Tour along with their American counterparts.

Despite that, though, as America look to end 30 years of hurt in Europe, the Northern Irishman says winning a Ryder Cup on the road is one of the toughest things to do in the sport.

The way the golf is going, the majority of the Europeans, we are playing the majority of our golf in the United States and we are playing all the same tournaments and the same course setups,” said McIlroy at Marco Simone Golf Club.

“We maybe grew up a little differently, and I think with some of the things that maybe the Europeans tried to do when we do have that home course, I'm not going to call it home-course advantage, but you can maybe tap into a little more of like how we grew up playing the game rather than how we play the game right now.

“Whistling Straits, you can't really set Whistling Straits up a certain way. It just is what it is. Yes, you can do stuff here and grow the rough up and try to pinch the fairways in at 320 so you're hitting more mid and long irons into greens and stuff like that.

"And that's all just looking at statistics and sort of seeing as a whole what the team does better than the other team.

“I think there's a reason playing, whether it be in Europe for us or in the US for the American Team, there has to be an advantage to that.

“That's why I've said this in the last number of years: Winning an away Ryder Cup is probably one of the biggest achievements in golf right now.”

With the course only offering minimal advantages, perhaps the home fans are tipping the balance, which McIlroy says is all part of the show, even if sometimes fans can overstep the mark in terms of heckling.

If asked whether he thought the European fans would go too far in Rome, McIlroy replied: “No because I think that's all part of the Ryder Cup.

“There's not a lot of other instances in the game of golf where that happens but there's certainly a line. Most fans that come out to watch golf are very respectful and they know what that line is.

“No, I have no issues about that. Yeah, we have all had our fair share of heckles over the years and whatever, and that's the a part of it. Someone said to me once, if you want to be part of the circus, you have to put up with the clowns.”

Paul Higham
Contributor

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.