Rory McIlroy says there are no bad feelings between him and Patrick Cantlay's caddie Joe LaCava, who were involved in an angry exchange at the Ryder Cup in Rome earlier this month.
The Ulsterman, who has been speaking to the BBC this week, was angered when Tiger Woods’ former caddie continued to celebrate a putt on the 18th green as he was lining up his crucial effort.
LaCava, who caddied for Woods for more than a decade, was waving his hat, a mock response to the crowd after fans' hat-waving gestures toward Cantlay in the wake of the “hatgate” controversy.
A fired-up McIlroy went on to miss his putt, which gave Cantlay and his fourball partner Wyndham Clark a 1UP victory – and afterwards more words were exchanged in the car park, with Shane Lowry stepping in to hold his teammate back.
“Disrespectful” was what McIlroy called LaCava’s actions the following day. “It was a bit of a deflating finish last night,” said the four-time Major winner. “What transpired on that last green gave us a fire in our bellies to get the job done today.”
However, McIlroy insists everyone involved has drawn a line under the matter and moved on.
💥 Wow! It's all kicking off in the car park with Rory Mcilroy and Bones MackayShane Lowry of all people dragging Rory away, still fuming about Joe LaCava being a complete clown#RyderCup pic.twitter.com/OJ3Oz0IkKCSeptember 30, 2023
“Things happen in the heat of the moment, tensions were high,” McIlroy explained. “Joe LaCava came into the European team room on the Sunday night and had a drink and a chat.
“I've had a great relationship with Joe over the years when he caddied for Tiger (Woods) and that wasn't going to change.
“For me, the incident happened, I purposely didn't want to meet anyone on the Sunday morning because I wanted what had happened to fuel me for that day. My whole focus was let's make sure Europe win the Ryder Cup and then we will sort all the other stuff out afterwards.
“And it's all fine. We're all friends now.”
In his interview with the BBC, McIlroy also revealed that he had turned down the chance to become an investor in Leeds United.
US golf stars Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas bought into the group 49ers Enterprises which completed a £170m takeover of Leeds United in July.
Despite recently joining the backers of F1 team Alpine and being open to other investments, McIlroy insists he won't be getting involved with the Yorkshire club for one obvious reason – he supports Manchester United.
“They asked me if I wanted to come on board and I was like, as a Man Utd fan, can't go anywhere near that,“ McIlroy said.
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