Rory McIlroy on the absence of LIV stars and what impact it had on the European team

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This Ryder Cup was specific in many ways. The golf world has gone through a big transition in recent years and changes have taken place that we did not expect. Of course, LIV Golf is without a doubt, the biggest change that brought many more with it and thus caused a domino effect.

We watched this year's Ryder Cup without European stars such as; Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, and Lee Westwood. By joining LIV Golf, they lost the right to participate in the Ryder Cup. The biggest star of this year's Ryder Cup, Rory McIlroy, in an interview with The Telegraph, commented on the absence of LIV stars and what impact it had on the entire team; “So the one thing I would say is that they’ve had unbelievable Ryder Cup careers and they’ve made their choices, and they’ve done what they’ve done and no one can take away the impact that they’ve had for the European team over the years.

But I feel like this week, not having those big personalities in the team room let other guys have that chance to flourish and to shine: Viktor [Hovland], Jon [Rahm], myself. There wasn’t a ton of space taken up in that room by some of the other big personalities and I think that let the rest of the team just sort of flourish.

It’s a young team. We can all grow together. I could potentially be the oldest person on the team next time. It’s a new era. And it’s a pretty good one”. - Rory said, as quoted by golfmonthly.com!

Shane Lowry

Shane Lowry shared his opinion with McIlroy.

Although Shane is aware of the importance of Poulter, Garcia and Westwood, on the other hand he is aware that their absence has given some other players a chance. It turned out that they used it and showed that the European team has a huge perspective.

“I think not having those guys there this week gave certain guys the opportunity to be something different in the team room. And I think that made a big difference. We have had three of the world’s top four [ranked] players in the team room this week.

Those [LIV] guys are obviously big Ryder Cup legends and have been amazing. But if they had been in the team room, maybe Rory, Jon and Viktor wouldn’t have been what they were this week”.