{"id":161528,"date":"2025-09-26T12:28:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T12:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/161528\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T12:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T12:28:14","slug":"rory-mcilroy-says-usa-is-still-the-best-country-in-the-world-as-he-prepares-for-ryder-cup-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/161528\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy says USA is \u2018still the best country in the world\u2019 as he prepares for Ryder Cup battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Irishman will spearhead the European challenge as they attempt to beat the Americans at Bethpage Black this week.<\/p>\n

Having already been booed during practice, the world number two is expected to be targeted by a raucous, partisan home crowd when play gets under way in New York on Friday.<\/p>\n

Yet that has not affected McIlroy\u2019s love for a country where he and his family are mainly based and where he has spent the majority of his professional career.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old, who this year became only the sixth player to complete a career grand slam, said: \u201cEveryone wanted to make it in America, it\u2019s the land of opportunity and I still believe it\u2019s the best country in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you come here and work hard and dedicate yourself, you can be or do whatever you want.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am unbelievably grateful and lucky that I got to come to America early on. I think success is celebrated here. I think there\u2019s a wonderful sense of work ethic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live here. My wife is American, my daughter is American. I have a lot of affinity towards this country and I think everyone that lives here should have that same affinity because it is a wonderful place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy has spoken of his love of the United States on the eve of the Ryder Cup (Mike Egerton\/PA)<\/p>\n

Ryder Cup preview day two: with Conor McKeon and Brian Keogh<\/p>\n

That will not stop McIlroy from doing his utmost to steer Europe to victory over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Europe are defending the trophy but have not won away from home since 2012 and have done so only four times since the contest was expanded to include players from the continent in 1979.<\/p>\n

McIlroy said: \u201cBasically since 2012, the home team has won convincingly every time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever team is the one to break that duck I think is going to go down as one of the best teams in Ryder Cup history. We are here and we are playing for history.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy\u2019s passion for the Ryder Cup was evident in Rome two years ago when he clashed with Patrick Cantlay\u2019s caddie Joe LaCava and tensions boiled over in the car park after play.<\/p>\n

Even though he may have achieved more individually, he rates his team experiences among his career highlights.<\/p>\n

\"McIlroy<\/p>\n

McIlroy has been engaging with fans during practice at Bethpage Black (David Davies\/PA)<\/p>\n

McIlroy, appearing in the event for the eighth time, said: \u201cI\u2019ve always said I\u2019m proudest of my individual achievements in the game but the most memorable moments and the most fun I\u2019ve had in my career have been at Ryder Cups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning another away Ryder Cup, just considering how hard that has been over the past 12 years, would be one of the greatest accomplishments of my career for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

On being targeted by the crowd, McIlroy hopes to turn the attention to his advantage.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI feel at times in the Ryder Cup I have engaged too much too much with the crowd, but then there\u2019s times where I haven\u2019t engaged enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really just trying to find the balance of using that energy from the crowd to fuel your performance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Irishman will spearhead the European challenge as they attempt to beat the Americans at Bethpage Black this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,2623,6547,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-161528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-rory-mcilroy","10":"tag-ryder-cup","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}