{"id":168737,"date":"2025-09-25T16:48:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/168737\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T16:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:48:18","slug":"after-2023-ryder-cup-drama-with-rory-mcilroy-joe-lacava-wants-to-avoid-controversy-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/168737\/","title":{"rendered":"After 2023 Ryder Cup drama with Rory McIlroy, Joe LaCava wants to avoid controversy this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 Ryder Cup first pairings and final practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. \u2014 Joe LaCava has seen the televised highlights, or lowlights, from 2023 played over and over again, with him as the lead actor in a wild Ryder Cup drama set against the backdrop of Rome.<\/p>\n

Patrick Cantlay\u2019s caddie getting into it with the fans. Patrick Cantlay\u2019s caddie getting into it with Rory McIlroy on the green and with Shane Lowry off it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course they\u2019re going to show those highlights because they want to have more controversy, and you know how that goes,\u201d LaCava told The Athletic during Wednesday\u2019s practice for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. \u201cI\u2019m not looking for any controversy this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiger Woods\u2019 former caddie poured gasoline on the Ryder Cup fire two years ago after Cantlay weathered a full Saturday of taunting from the Marco Simone crowd after a report claimed the American wasn\u2019t wearing his U.S. team hat as a way of protesting the lack of player compensation in the event. (Cantlay denied the report again this week, repeating that his hat didn\u2019t fit.)<\/p>\n

After Cantlay played brilliantly down the stretch and drained the 43-footer on the 18th green to give his partnership with Xander Schauffele a victory over McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick, LaCava led a delegation of Americans who waved their caps at the fans. McIlroy thought the caddie\u2019s mock celebration lasted too long and lingered too close to his putting line, setting off a series of profane verbal clashes between the two sides that ended when the Northern Irishman berated LaCava\u2019s friend and former caddie Jim \u201cBones\u201d Mackay in the club parking lot.<\/p>\n

McIlroy later told the Irish Independent that \u201cLaCava used to be a nice guy when he was caddying for Tiger\u201d and had \u201cturned into an ass\u201d since working for Cantlay.<\/p>\n

Asked if he\u2019d shared any conversations with McIlroy about the incident, LaCava said, \u201cWhen you say conversations, we haven\u2019t been paired together that much, to be honest with you. We say hello to each other and stuff like that, but I\u2019ve never had a lot of conversations (with Rory) to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Joe LaCava, right, argues with Shane Lowry during the 2023 Ryder Cup. (Ross Kinnaird \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

McIlroy has predicted another European conquest of an American team that\u2019s now led by team captain Keegan Bradley, once a Bethpage regular as a player at St. John\u2019s. LaCava, a member of the Caddie Hall of Fame, said there is a distinct difference between Bradley\u2019s managerial style and that of his predecessor, Zach Johnson, who lost in Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeegan\u2019s brought a lot of enthusiasm; he\u2019s a fiery kind of guy,\u201d LaCava said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean Zach not being as fiery is a bad thing. I think Zach was great. I think if Zach was guilty of one thing, it was being too nice, just letting the guys do what they want, which is fine. That\u2019s the kind of person he is. \u2026Keegan is just a little more fiery, and he\u2019s fired up the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

A diehard Giants fan who wore a Saquon Barkley shirt under his Masters jumpsuit during Tiger\u2019s epic victory at the 2019 Masters, LaCava said fans at Bethpage have been approaching him more about the Giants, new starting QB Jaxson Dart, and the New York Rangers than they have about the profane shouting matches he had with McIlroy and Lowry.<\/p>\n

As for the Marco Simone crowd that Mackay, now an NBC analyst, described as brutal<\/a> towards the American players in 2023, LaCava said, \u201cI actually didn\u2019t think it was that bad. Bones was away from us and closer to the crowd, so maybe he heard more comments. But the fans are supposed to be on their home team\u2019s side, and that\u2019s what you want. I enjoy going over there and playing matches like that. You can\u2019t take it personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Top photo of Joe LaCava: Christian Petersen \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 Ryder Cup first pairings and final practice. FARMINGDALE, N.Y. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-168737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}