Rory McIlroy fell out with three Ryder Cup team-mates and relationship has never been the same

Rory McIlroy is competing in his eighth Ryder Cup but he has not remained close with all his former teammates. Team Europe last won on American soil in 2012, but McIlroy’s relationships with three of his teammates from the ‘Miracle in Medinah’ have since soured.

Team Europe are aiming to win on American soil for only the fifth time in Ryder Cup history, following their convincing 16.5-11.5 triumph over Team USA in Rome two years ago. McIlroy will hope to help Europe to victory and be part of his sixth Ryder Cup success.

McIlroy has praised the continuity from captain Luke Donald as Team Europe aim to build on their victory from 2023. The Northern Irishman has been bullish about Europe’s chances of an away victory since their win in Rome, but he is aware of the sizeable task they face.

“Basically since 2012, the home team has won every time. But they also have won convincingly,” McIlroy admitted. “It's been pretty one-sided either way. So whatever team, whether that's Europe or America, that is the one to break that duck, I honestly think is going to go down as one of the best teams in Ryder Cup history.

Only McIlroy and Justin Rose remain from Team Europe’s iconic triumph in 2012. However, Masters champion McIlroy subsequently fell out with several players who played a role in the ‘Miracle in Medinah’.

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Rory McIlroy’s friendship with Sergio Garcia

Sergio Garcia and McIlroy were first Ryder Cup teammates in 2012 and went on to represent Team Europe together at a further four tournaments. However, their friendship was impacted when both men found themselves on opposite sides of the rift between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, McIlroy pinpointed the moment their relationship changed: “On the Friday of the US Open,” he said in 2022. “I woke up to a text that was sent at 5.30 that morning. He had an early tee time, I didn’t, and I woke up to this text basically telling me to shut up about LIV, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was pretty offended and sent him back a couple of daggers and that was it.”

A year on, Garcia revealed he had made efforts to rekindle their friendship after McIlroy took time to speak to the Spanish golfer’s wife. “That kind of gave me the go-ahead to reach out to him,” Garcia explained in 2023.

“I had been thinking about it for a while but I wasn’t totally sure about it. And when I saw that reaction from him, he kind of gave me the go-ahead to get closer. We had a great chat. It was two friends that wanted to get back to that spot. That’s the most important thing.”

McIlroy still made another pointed remark towards Garcia as the PGA-LIV divide continued last year: "Yeah, Sergio feels he deserves a lot of things." However, Garcia has insisted that the pair are now friends once again.

Rory McIlroy’s relationship with Ian Poulter

McIlroy’s initial stance towards players leaving the PGA for LIV was at the centre of his fallout with Ian Poulter. McIlroy spoke of “resentment” when Poulter and other players fought to compete at the 2022 Scottish Open after agreeing to join the breakaway league,

"The whole cake-and-eat-it type of attitude is what the resentment stems from within the PGA Tour and DP World Tour membership,” McIlroy told BBC Sport. “That's the tricky part."

Later that year, McIlroy namechecked Poulter and other Ryder Cup stars as he explained his feelings towards the new divide within golf. "I think it is the first time in my life that I have felt betrayal, in a way. It's an unfamiliar feeling to me,” McIlroy said.

"You build bonds with these people through Ryder Cups and other things. Them knowing that what they are about to do is going to jeopardise them from being a part of that ever again?”

For his part, Poulter hit out at other golfers who followed McIlroy’s steps of trying to fix the rift between the PGA and LIV last year. However, the 49-year-old insisted that his issue was not with McIlroy.

"Just for clarity, I applauded Rory McIlroy for his comments a few weeks ago,” Poulter said on social media. “It takes a lot to say the things he said. Nothing that can't be fixed over a good cup of coffee.”

Rory McIlroy’s fallout with Lee Westwood

Lee Westwood was another leading golfer who joined LIV in 2022, leading McIlroy to change his thoughts about several of his former Ryder Cup teammates. “I wouldn't say I've got much of a relationship with them at the minute,” McIlroy admitted that September, when asked about Garcia, Poulter and Westwood.

Westwood pulled no punches last year when defending his decision to join LIV, insisting that the defecting players were purposely painted in a bad light. “I think a lot of those people are now starting to understand that they were being brainwashed by certain people with just purely financial motivations on their mind,” Westwood said on the Fairway to Heaven podcast.

“They were making up these stories and trying to give people these ideas about us players that were going to LIV just to really forge their case with the public, and convince the public that we were bad and they were good."

Despite McIlroy softening his stance towards LIV, the Masters champion argued against experienced players, such as Westwood and Poulter, becoming Ryder Cup captains in the future. He argued that their move to LIV had altered their relationships with other players on the PGA Tour.

"I think it's hard because we don't really see them anymore,” McIlroy explained in February. "You look at what [current captain] Luke [Donald] has done the last few years, he's really making an effort to be around the players, making the players feel comfortable with him, those who haven't had a chance yet to be on a team or trying to make a team.

"With the guys that left, Poulter, Westwood, how can these young up-and-comers build a rapport with them when they are never here? You can't see them.”