HAVING CHEEKILY BOWED to the crowd after holing a crucial eagle at the Ryder Cup on Friday, Rory McIlroy has revealed the celebration was planned.
McIlroy, playing with rookie Thomas Pieters, holed out for a three after a brilliant approach shot on the par-five 16th at Hazeltine to seal a 3 and 2 win over Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar.
The Northern Irishman reacted theatrically, bowing to the partisan galleries and clenching his fist exuberantly, as Europe recovered from losing the morning foursomes to trail just 5-3.
“For me, even before I hit that putt, I wanted to put an exclamation point on that session for us,” he told a news conference.
“I honestly actually thought about the celebration before I hit the putt. I knew it had a good chance of going in. It was downhill, I just had to get it started on the right line and gravity did the rest.
“It’s a hostile environment out there, and I just want everyone that’s watching out there to know how much this means to us, how much it means to me personally and obviously us as a team.
“You know, we’re not going down without a fight. It was four-zip after the morning. We’ve pulled it back a good bit, and we plan to pull it back even further going into tomorrow.”
Asked if he is concerned about providing Team USA and their supporters with additional motivation, McIlroy said: “No. No worries on my part. I bowed to them, said, ‘You’re welcome for the show,’ and we move on.”
Pieters meanwhile, having lost 5 and 4 to Johnson and Kuchar alongside Lee Westwood in the foursomes, was delighted to learn from the example of McIlroy’s game and attitude.
“It’s nice to see how he just hits the shots that need to be hit under pressure,” he said.
“He gets so fired up. Maybe this morning, nobody really got fired up on our team, but especially this afternoon, it was cool to see how passionate those guys are, and I think that I still need to learn because I’ve been pretty quiet, I think.”
Good to see Sammy putting in good performances. He could turn out to be an excellent Internation too. Great to see strength and depth at centre in Munster too, Scannel, Farrel, Taute, Arnold and even Goggins.
It would be nice to see some Munster developed players break into the national team, and stay there. It has been a long time since Conor Murray and Simon Zebo did so. There are a number of players in the background but they really need to start producing more for Ireland.
@grandslamkbo: O’Mahony? I agree that we could do with more lads breaking in for regular games but there’s such a log jam of Leinster players…
@EnKy: POM, of course. My error, I meant backs. No reason to drag thinly veiled hostility towards Leinster in this. What Munster-developed players do you think are being unfairly kept out of the first team or regular squad positions for Leinster players? As an Irish supporter, I want to see the best for the national team. Every team has to do their part.
@grandslamkbo: last weekend there were 3 Leinster starters, 2 – munster, 1 Connacht and 1 Ulster. For the next match it’ll be 3 munster, 2 Leinster, 1 Connacht and 1 Ulster. Not sure how you figure munster should be doing more.
@Jim Demps: It was a pretty poor attempt at trolling
This guy has got some serious acceleration.
The abuse joe get and yet the work he puts into these younger players and bringing them through slowly but making sure each part of the foundation is rock solid. Those who buy into this learning set up and do the required work will become far better players for us in the medium and long term.
@Chris Mc: where you seeing all this abuse for Joe?
@Jim Demps: Ahhhh c’mon now… Even Ive hurled the odd bit of abuse at him. And i think he’s flippin great.
The criticism from fans is constant. No matter what he does there will be those who think he shouldve done differently. That’s just the territory of being a head coach. Everyone has an opinion, so no matter what choice Schmidt makes, someone will disagree
@Jim Demps: I just made it up
@Rudiger McMonihan: ya ur probably right. I’m always dumbfounded that he goes with toner.
Fine player with a big future ahead for Munster and Ireland.