Rory McIlroy will represent Luke Donald’s European squad at the Ryder Cup next month, but the Northern Irishman revealed the rapidly evolving nature of professional golf by confessing he no longer has contact details for some of his former teammates.

McIlroy is preparing for his eighth Ryder Cup appearance when he travels to New York to face the Americans at Bethpage Black, having first competed for the continent in 2010 at Celtic Manor.

His skipper during that debut was Welsh golfing icon Colin Montgomerie, who boasts his own designed course at Celtic Manor bearing his name. Montgomerie guided a thrilling victory for Team Europe, prevailing 14.5 to 13.5.

McIlroy and Montgomerie have encountered each other numerous times since that triumph, but due to golf’s constantly shifting landscape, the Masters winner acknowledged he no longer possesses the Welshman’s contact information – while discussing the ‘new generation’ of Europeans.

During remarks at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, Georgia, McIlroy reflected on his position within previous squads versus this year’s roster.

When questioned about whether any contact numbers in the Team Europe group chat from 2010 were unfamiliar to him, he replied: “Yeah, geez, there’s — I don’t know if people have changed their numbers since then.

“I would hope that they have. I’ve certainly changed mine a few times. Yeah, I mean, obviously Monty was our captain back then. Pretty sure I don’t have Colin Montgomerie’s number right now. It’s changed a lot.

“I played on Ryder Cup teams with all those guys that were sort of the core of that European team for a decade or more, and that’s who I started with.

“Now we’ve sort of created our own core group, and it’s the next generation, and that’s a cool thing. There’s a few guys there that I probably don’t have their number anymore or they don’t have mine.”

DON’T MISS:

McIlroy has already secured his spot in this year’s tournament, but his buddy Shane Lowry is anxiously waiting to find out if he’ll need to rely on a captain’s pick.

Lowry won’t be earning any qualification points at the Tour Championship this weekend, and might lose his automatic spot to Rasmus Hojgaard.

If Hojgaard ends up in a two-way tie for 29th place or better at the British Masters this weekend, he’ll take the qualification spot from Lowry, leaving him dependent on a captain’s pick.