Yahoo Sports Rory McIlroy calls for LIV rebel Brooks Koepka to play for US at Ryder Cup
Rory McIlroy believes that Brooks Koepka has every right to appear in this year’s United States Ryder Cup team, but maintains it should be a different story for the Europeans who joined LIV Golf.
Koepka won the US PGA Championship three weeks ago, after finishing second at the Masters in April. However, because he cannot earn qualifying points on the Saudi-funded circuit, and is banned from the PGA Tour, he could still fall out of the top six in the standings who will automatically earn their berths for Rome in September. McIlroy feels US captain Zach Johnson should pick Koepka regardless.
“I certainly think Brooks deserves to be on the United States team,” McIlroy said, speaking at the Memorial tournament in Ohio that begins on Thursday. “I mean, he’s second in the US standings, having played only two counting events. I don’t know if there’s anyone else on the LIV roster that would make the team on merit.”
On Tuesday, Jon Rahm, the top-ranked European at world No 2, made an impassioned case for fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia to be made eligible, despite the 43-year-old recently resigning from the DP World Tour and refusing to pay a £100,000 fine for jumping ship.
Rahm pointed out that Garcia is the Ryder Cup’s all-time leading points-scorer and said that the match should not be tainted by “politics” but should feature “the best versus the best”.
However, McIlroy said: “I have different feelings about the European team and the other side and sort of how that has all transpired. Yeah, I don’t think any of those guys should be a part of the European team.”
It will be interesting to find out if McIlroy’s opinion remains the same should Garcia – or other European team legends such as Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood – perform well at either of the season’s remaining two majors, the US Open at LA Country Club on June 15-18 and the Open at Hoylake in July.
Yet these comments suggest that the four-time major winner would not be swayed.
Stenson was stripped of the Europe captaincy after going back on his contract by signing up for the rebel tour and Poulter filed an injunction against the DP World Tour after being sanctioned.
Later, he and Westwood both spoke at an arbitration hearing to try to overturn the punishments issued by Wentworth HQ. LIV lost that particular legal battle. The quartet have all since handed in their cards.
Garcia remains the only LIV player not to have paid the initial £100,000 fine. He and McIlroy were formerly good friends - with the Northern Irishman acting as a groomsman at the Spaniard’s wedding - but the game’s civil war caused an acrimonious split.
Garcia asked McIlroy to stop criticising LIV and that provoked an angry reaction from McIlroy, who all but announced their friendship as over.
A few months ago, Garcia told Telegraph Sport that Mcilroy “acted immaturely”, an accusation which, considering Garcia’s notorious behaviour over the years, inevitably inspired ridicule across the game. The pair have not spoken to each other for almost a year.
