McIlroy Dismisses Prospect of Ryder Cup Playing Captain Role

Rory McIlroy has firmly rejected the notion of serving as a playing captain at a future Ryder Cup, stating that it would be “very difficult to do”.

The 36-year-old from Northern Ireland will once again lead Europe’s challenge at this year’s tournament, which will take place at Bethpage Black in New York from 26 to 28 September.

World No. 12 Keegan Bradley was appointed captain of the United States in July 2024 after 15-time major winner Tiger Woods turned down the role. Bradley has enjoyed strong form in 2025, with nine top-20 finishes, and currently sits 10th in the American Ryder Cup standings. The US team will comprise six automatic qualifiers and six captain’s picks.

Speaking ahead of the BMW Championship in Maryland on Thursday, McIlroy confirmed that he had already turned down the opportunity to combine playing and captaincy duties “sometime soon”.

“I’ve been asked to do that and I’ve turned it down,” the Masters champion said. “The idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon has come up and I’ve shot it down straight away. I don’t think you can do it.”

The Ryder Cup has not had a playing captain since Arnold Palmer led a victorious US side in 1963. McIlroy believes the modern scale of the event makes such a role unrealistic.

“There’s a lot of things people don’t see that the captain does during the week of the Ryder Cup, especially now that it’s become so big,” he explained. “The captain isn’t going to be on the course all day, so they’d probably only play one session on Friday and one on Saturday. Wouldn’t you rather have the flexibility to go twice if they’re playing well? There’s just a lot that goes into it.

“That’s why, in my opinion, it would be very difficult to do.”

McIlroy, who played alongside Bradley for the first two rounds of the Travelers Championship in June – a PGA Tour signature event that Bradley won by a single stroke over Tommy Fleetwood and Russell Henley – praised the American’s quality.

“I definitely think he’s one of the 12 best American players right now,” McIlroy said. “That’s why everyone is so interested and why it’s such a compelling case. I’m just as interested as everyone else to see how it all plays out.”

‘That extra week off will do me good’

McIlroy will partner world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler in the BMW Championship, teeing off at 16:16 BST on Thursday.

The event will mark McIlroy’s first competitive appearance since finishing tied seventh at The Open Championship at Royal Portrush in July. He opted to skip last week’s FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis – the opening event of the PGA Tour play-offs – a decision which drew criticism from some quarters of the media.

Defending his choice, McIlroy pointed to a busy schedule for the rest of the year, noting that other players “aren’t 18 years into their professional careers”.

“I’m playing nine times between now and the end of the year, so I’ve still got a pretty busy stretch coming up,” he said. “I think that extra week off will do me good with the events coming up – some big events that are important to me: the Irish Open, Wentworth for the BMW PGA Championship, obviously the Ryder Cup, and I want to try to win my seventh Race to Dubai.

“There are still things that are important to me that I want to go and play in. That was a big part of the reason why I took the week off last week.”