{"id":264901,"date":"2025-11-05T19:06:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264901\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T19:06:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:06:14","slug":"mcilroy-thanks-pga-chief-for-ryder-cup-apology-and-questions-liv-changes-rory-mcilroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264901\/","title":{"rendered":"McIlroy thanks PGA chief for Ryder Cup apology and questions LIV changes | Rory McIlroy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy says the PGA of America chief executive, Derek Sprague, personally apologized for the abuse directed at him and his wife during Europe\u2019s Ryder Cup triumph<\/a> at Bethpage Black and that the gesture helped close the book on what had been a bruising week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a lovely email from Derek Sprague apologizing,\u201d McIlroy told BBC Sport ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. \u201cErica worked with Derek at the PGA of America back in the day, so we know Derek and his wife pretty well. He couldn\u2019t have been more gracious or apologetic and he wrote us a lovely letter, which we really appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n

A beer hurled from the stands struck his wife Erica\u2019s hat<\/a> during the fiery three-day contest, in which McIlroy became a lightning rod for a raucous home crowd. \u201cI take it as a compliment that they targeted me, but then at the same time, it was a tough week,\u201d he said. \u201cThat made us better as a team. It galvanised us and it really put our arms around each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the USA captain, Keegan Bradley, declined to condemn<\/a> the \u201cpassionate\u201d New York fans, McIlroy said the experience ultimately strengthened Europe\u2019s resolve en route to their narrow victory.<\/p>\n

Now preparing for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, the four-time major winner reflected on what he called a career-defining campaign. \u201cI think back to the start in January of 2025 when I was last here and everything that\u2019s happened since,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cHonestly, in my wildest dreams, I didn\u2019t know. I mean, I knew a year like this was possible, but it has just been an amazing 10 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy also weighed in on LIV Golf\u2019s decision to expand to 72-hole events<\/a> beginning in 2026, a change widely seen as a bid for Official World Golf Ranking points. \u201cI think it\u2019s a peculiar move because I think they could have got ranking points with three rounds,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think three rounds versus four rounds is what was holding them back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly puts them more in line with traditional golf tournaments \u2026 but if that\u2019s what they felt they needed to do to get the ranking points, I guess that\u2019s what they had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet McIlroy doubts the switch will significantly boost LIV players\u2019 standings. \u201cSay potentially they get world rankings points, but because their strength of fields are going to be so weak because a lot of the guys have fallen already in the rankings \u2026 I don\u2019t know if the ranking points are really going to benefit them,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be interesting to see how it plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy says the PGA of America chief executive, Derek Sprague, personally apologized for the abuse directed at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-264901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}