Rory McIlroy responds to Westwood, Poulter and Garcia ending Ryder Cup careers

Rory McIlroy has responded to news that Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia have effectively ended their Ryder Cup careers, describing the news as a “shame”.

The decorated trio will have no further involvement in the biennial contest after resigning their memberships of the DP World Tour.

Along with Richard Bland, Westwood, Poulter and Garcia quit the former European Tour with the threat of significant sanctions hanging over them following their move to the LIV Golf League last year.

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By doing so, all are now ineligble to play in this year’s Ryder Cup. It will be the first time since 1995 that the match will go ahead without at least one of the star trio taking part.

Between them, Westwood, Poulter and Garcia have played in 28 Ryder Cups, contributing 68.5 points to the European cause. Westwood shares the record for most appearances for the European side (11) whilst Garcia is the contest’s all-time record points-scorer.

Per the rules, the trio can also never captain or be a vice-captain in the match.

McIlroy, who is playing in this week’s Wells Fargo Championship on the PGA Tour, was asked for his thoughts on the latest development in the civil war that has split professional men’s golf down the middle.

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“I think it’s a shame, right?” he said. “I think it’s a shame that you’ve got the highest points score ever in the Ryder Cup and two guys that when they look back on their career, that’s probably going to be at least a big chunk of their legacy is the roles that they have played in the Ryder Cup for Europe.

“For those three guys to not captain Europe one day, it’s a shame. But as the DP World Tour said in their statement, at the end of the day that was their choice and they knew that these were potentially going to be the consequences of those choices and of those actions, and here we are.

Yeah, it’s certainly a shame.”

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor