Rory McIlroy backs Brooks Koepka for Ryder Cup

WASHINGTON – Rory McIlroy said on Wednesday that LIV Golf star Brooks Koepka has earned the right to be in the United States’ Ryder Cup team following his PGA Championship triumph.

Koepka bagged his fifth Major title at the PGA Championship in May, just weeks after a second-place finish at the Masters.

Those results have left Koepka second in the overall US standings for the Ryder Cup, meaning he would normally be a shoo-in to make the squad.

However, with the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit at loggerheads, it remains unclear whether LIV Golf players will be eligible for Ryder Cup spots.

McIlroy – one of the most vocal critics of LIV Golf – believes that Koepka should be in the US team that will face Europe at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome in September.

“I certainly think Brooks deserves to be in the United States team,” McIlroy said, ahead of this week’s PGA Tour Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.

“I think with how he’s played, I mean, he’s second in the US standings, played only two counting events.

“I don’t know if there’s anyone else on the LIV roster who would make the team on merit and how they’re playing.

“But Brooks is definitely a guy I think deserves to be in the US team.”

McIlroy, however, is adamant that former European Tour players who have signed for LIV – including Ryder Cup stalwarts such as Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia – should not be eligible for the tournament.

“I have different feelings about the European team and the other side and sort of how that has all transpired,” McIlroy said.

“I don’t think any of those guys should be a part of the European team.”

Europe were initially due to be skippered by Sweden’s Henrik Stenson but he was stripped of the captaincy after joining LIV.

He was subsequently replaced by England’s Luke Donald.

Spanish star Garcia – Europe’s all-time leading Ryder Cup scorer with 28.5 points from 10 appearances – said recently that Donald had already told him he had “no chance” of making the European team as a captain’s pick.

That decision was greeted with dismay by Garcia’s fellow Spaniard Jon Rahm.

Rahm said in Ohio that where players choose to play should not affect Ryder Cup eligibility.

“It’s a little sad to me that politics have gotten in the way of such a beautiful event,” Rahm said on Tuesday.

“It’s the best Europeans against the best Americans, period. And whatever is going on, who is playing LIV and who is not playing LIV to me shouldn’t matter.”

Rahm added that Garcia’s exclusion from Ryder Cup contention was hard to stomach.

“I have a hard time to believe that the best player Europe has ever had, the most successful player Europe has had in the Ryder Cup, isn’t fit to be in the team,” Rahm said. “It’s unfortunate and I will miss him.”

Meanwhile, McIlroy has admitted that being the de facto spokesman among the PGA Tour membership has been an emotional drain over the past year. And whether that has contributed to the Northern Irishman’s struggles on the golf course remains a debate.

After winning the Tour Championship and reclaiming the No. 1 ranking the previous campaign, McIlroy has been wildly inconsistent this season.

Through his first nine events, he has a win at the CJ Cup, joint-second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and finished third at the Match Play, but missed the cut at The Players Championship and the Masters and admitted his ball-striking was well off at the PGA Championship, despite scrambling for a joint-seventh.

“I can’t remember a time when I felt so uncomfortable over the ball for four days,” McIlroy said of his most recent start at Oak Hill.

“So I needed to go back home and work on some things and, yeah, feeling a lot better about it, not fighting the club face quite as much.

“Feel a little bit more free, which is obviously a nice feeling.”
AFP, REUTERS