Rory McIlroy's confrontation with Patrick Cantlay's caddy was the catalyst for Europe's victory, and he subsequently led the celebrations. Photo: Reuters/GULIELMO MANGIAPAN
What better way to follow a fight in a parking lot than to read something about Marcus Aurelius? Rory McIlroy is nothing if not his own man, capable of going from blazing rage to myopic winning mentality in the blink of an eye. And so he decided, after an argument with a caddy so intense that Shane Lowry demanded to be bundled into his courtesy car, that he should absorb the wisdom of a Roman emperor to calm himself down. “I’m a big follower of Stoicism,” he said. “If anyone could get inside my head, it was Marcus.”
Never change, Rory. While you wouldn't pick McIlroy over a man named Bones—»I'll have to do all the work,» Lowry joked—he does have creative ways to control his wild impulses. Indeed, Saturday night's match here in Rome fell to the top of the Sunday afternoon match, with McIlroy's best performance to beat Sam Burns for a fourth point out of five.
Any thoughts of caddies and car parks instantly disappeared. “Throw away your sense of trauma, and the trauma itself will disappear,” a wise man once said. In fact, Marcus Aurelius.
As McIlroy basked in the acclaim from his teammates after a 3-1 win, he looked every inch the galvanizing force of Europe. This was not just a matter of perception, but a cold statistical reality. Since McIlroy won his last major title in 2014, he has been the leading scorer on both sides of the Ryder Cup. Memories of his nightmare in the Whistling Straits two years ago, where he failed to score a single point until the singles, could hardly be more distant.
This time he cried again, but from joy, not from despair. “We were all hurting after Whistling Straits,” he said. “The few of us who were on this team wanted to come here to redeem ourselves, to prove to the world that we are not who we really are.”
He was also in a mischievous mood. When he returned to the 18th fairway after beating Burns, a fan asked him to put on his Euro cap and he couldn't resist hitting Patrick Cantlay in response. Amid allegations that Cantlay wanted financial rewards for representing his country (claims the player did not directly deny), McIlroy joked: «I don't have to pay to wear this.»
Rory McIlroy rejoiced at the European victory. Photo: Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapan
Apparently his peers have already started calling him Rocky McIlroy, after his now famous altercation after Saturday's four-ball. He didn't deny that the scenes on the 18th green that night lit a fire under him. Joe LaCava, Cantlay's caddy, behaved disgracefully and celebrated wildly while McIlroy readied his putt in an apparent attempt to scare him off. This behavior made his blood boil: Jim «Bones» Mackay had the misfortune of finding himself in the line of fire when he subsequently issued a sharp rebuke. At one point, he admitted, he thought about storming into Team USA's room and criticizing them all, but Lowry held him back.
“It was the most anger I’ve felt in a long time,” said McIlroy, who still hasn’t spoken to LaCava despite the caddy’s attempts to apologize. Even his wife Erica was clearly shocked by the level of his rage. By the time he returned to the team hotel he was still seething, and Lowry advised him to take advantage of the small swimming pool to blow off some steam. But before he could go to class the next morning and open a copy of his favorite Roman philosophical treatise, Meditations, everything was fine in the world again.
Smiling as he described his outburst, in which he repeatedly called LaCava a “fucking disgrace,” he reflected, “I needed that to fuel myself. I felt like I used this to my advantage and came out with a different level of focus and determination. In a way, it lit a fire in the bellies of the whole team.”
McIlroy brings out a side of himself that is rarely seen elsewhere at the Ryder Cup. He has always been a deeply expressive, sometimes vulnerable soul, but in such an intense team format his extremes are highlighted. While on a normal tour he might show slight frustration, under this pressure he might become so angry that he looks ready to hit someone. And where he might be elated at winning an individual trophy, a collective triumph of this magnitude sends him into a state of reverie.
One question about what the Ryder Cup meant to him made him dissolve again. “I don’t feel emotional about any event other than this,” he said. “This is truly the best event in golf, bar none. For any boy or girl who aspires to play professionally, this is the pinnacle.”
As he posed with the trophy, you could almost see the demons of Whistling Strait leaving his body. McIlroy had endured a searing emotional ordeal that week, but here he embraced his position as Europe's chief motivator, only to be robbed of a perfect five from five only by Cantlay's inspired attack. Not that that protected him from the team's wheeler-dealers: Justin Rose pointed out that McIlroy still owed him money for the bet.
«Rory never pays,» interjected Tommy Fleetwood. “Can I just say it? He never pays.»
“I didn’t win the FedEx Cup this year,” McIlroy replied, grinning, knowing full well he had already won the PGA Tour’s £15 million bonus three times. Otherwise, any thoughts about wheelbarrows full of money were far from his mind. Europe can rest assured that Rory is all about glory in this competition.
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