Rory McIlroy reveals Tiger Woods reached out during Ryder Cup row with Joe LaCava

Rory McIlroy has opened up on the car park row that erupted during September’s Ryder Cup, revealing his bust-up with caddie Joe LaCava even prompted an attempted intervention by Tiger Woods.

McIlroy and LaCava had a furious falling out late on Saturday in Rome as the US staged a rally at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club.

The tension continued into the car park, with McIlroy having to be bundled into a car by teammate Shane Lowry and wife Erica as passions threatened to spill over.

Now, speaking with Paul Kimmage in the Irish Independent (subscription required), McIlroy has detailed exactly what went down.

In an extraordinary interview, the four-time major champion:

   – Reveals he has “an average at best” relationship with LaCava’s player Patrick Cantlay, whom he also describes as a “d*ck”;

   – Describes the moment he “tripped” into a “complete rage”;

   – Details what happened when the teams got back to their hotel that night;

   – And explains how Tiger Woods, for whom LaCava used to caddie, attempted to intervene.

“Here’s what angered me,” said McIlroy. “My relationship with Cantlay is average at best. We don’t have a ton in common and see the world quite differently.

“But when I saw he was getting stick on the 17th and 18th greens, I tried to quieten the crowd for him. And I don’t think Fitz and I were afforded the same opportunity to try and hole those putts to halve the match.

“I hit a decent putt but I under-read it basically, and Fitz hit a good putt but left it short, right in the jaws.

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“I shook Joe’s hand, and Patrick’s hand. Those three putts he made on 16, 17 and 18 were fantastic, and under that pressure, to give your team a glimmer of hope going into Sunday was big balls. So all respect to him.

“There was a bit of argy-bargy at the back of the 18th green with Fred Couples and Thomas Bjorn – and that’s fine – but as I’m walking back to the locker room I can feel this red mist coming over me: ‘No! That wasn’t right.”

With a furious Shane Lowry – also interviewed by Kimmage – “roaring and shouting” in the team room, McIlroy found himself “getting more and more riled up.”

“As we’re getting up to leave I’m like, ‘I’m going into their locker room now to sort this out,’” added McIlroy. “And Shane was like, ‘No Rory. Bad idea.’”

Finally, Rory erupted when Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay, the caddie for Justin Thomas, approached him in the car park.

“He’s coming over to try and defuse the situation,” said McIlroy. “But he’s wearing an American top, and I know he’s friends with Joe, and I just tripped. Complete rage. I felt bad about it afterwards because Bones’s wife was standing beside him, and I used a lot of swear words. So not my finest moment. Then Shane bundled me into the car.”

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McIlroy and Lowry returned to the team hotel with their wives, by which time footage of McIlroy’s bust-up with Mackay had already gone viral.

“We get to the hotel, and as you come into the lobby we go left to our wing of the hotel, and the Americans go right to their wing,” he explained. “So we’re going left and someone is shouting at me, ‘Rory! Rory!’, and I look back and it’s Ricky Elliott [the Portrush-born caddie of the American, Brooks Koepka] and Claude Harmon [Koepka’s swing coach].

“And they’re trying to defuse the situation but I start having a go at them. ‘Joe LaCava used to be a nice guy when he was caddying for Tiger, and now he’s caddying for that dick he’s turned into a …’ I still wasn’t in a great headspace.

“I went back to my room and there was a text from Joe LaCava: ‘Hey Rory, would love to meet up in the morning to clear the air.’ But I was tired and didn’t get back to him.

“There was also three texts and two missed calls from Tiger, because they’re obviously still close. I sent him a quick message: ‘It will be fine … long day … just want to go to bed.’”

• Read the full interview with Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry in the Irish Independent (subscription required)

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