Rory McIlroy couldn’t resist making a cheeky remark towards Tommy Fleetwood after the latter celebrated a Ryder Cup win on top of his Tour Championship success. Before their Ryder Cup celebrations at Bethpage Black, it was Fleetwood who was jubilant in Georgia, clinching the final FedEx Cup playoff event. Fleetwood’s triumph marked his first PGA Tour win and came with a hefty £7.7million prize.
After the Ryder Cup victory, McIlroy shared a light-hearted comment about Fleetwood’s weekend in New York during the same press conference where he addressed his wife Erica Stoll’s challenging Ryder Cup experience. When asked about overcoming the boisterous New York crowd, McIlroy didn’t mince words as he twisted the knife after getting the last laugh: “Very f***ing satisfying.”
Fleetwood then chimed in about what he saw, “It wasn’t stiff. It wasn’t stiff. I had to putt it” sharing a laugh with his team-mates.
When probed about what he saw during his play, Fleetwood answered: “Right centre. Pushed it in the right centre.”
McIlroy quickly retorted with a jest: “Too busy counting all that money from the FedEx Cup.”
Despite his playful ribbing of Fleetwood and his recent achievements, McIlroy heaped praise on captain Luke Donald and his teammates’ resilience against Team USA’s fierce final-day fightback.
“We got so lucky in getting an incredible leader in Luke Donald. He shepherded us through this process and he’s been absolutely amazing. A lot of the credit has to go to him,” he declared.
“Eleven of the twelve players from Rome came back, we did what we needed to do – and we are going to celebrate like there’s no tomorrow.
“I’m extremely proud to be a part of this team. I’m extremely proud of every single one of the players, the VCs, the captain, all the backroom support staff.
“This was an unbelievable collective effort, and as soon as we won in Rome, we turned our attention to trying to do something that everyone thought was impossible to do. Not just winning in America, but winning here in New York. It’s been an amazing week.”
Although McIlroy wasn’t there to join Fleetwood’s celebrations in Georgia, standing alongside the 34-year-old in New York with the rest of Team Europe helped ease what had been a challenging week.
He particularly emphasised how participation in the Ryder Cup transcends individual achievement, representing instead a unified mission to honour the sport.
“Yeah, it’s been a really tough week,” McIlroy added. “It’s been really tough. I felt I didn’t have much today. I didn’t feel I put up that much of a fight against Scottie [Scheffler]. He wasn’t at his best either. If we were at our best, the level of golf would have been better.
“When you win a Ryder Cup, it isn’t about you. It’s about the team, and we did enough to get the job done.”
