Rory McIlroy says the resignations of Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood from the DP World Tour is a shame for the Ryder Cup and the player’s legacies.
Poulter, Garcia Westwood and Richard Bland resigned their DP World Tour memberships on Wednesday thus becoming ineligible for Ryder Cup selection for Luke Donald’s European team in September.
It brings the curtain down on three European legends with Garcia becoming the Ryder Cup record points scorer in Paris 2018 while Poulter and Westwood had cemented their legacies in the biennial competition with Poulter being dubbed ‘Mr Ryder Cup.’
“Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a shame, right? I think it’s a shame that you’ve got the highest points score ever in the Ryder Cup and two guys that when they look back on their career, that’s probably going to be at least a big chunk of their legacy is the roles that they have played in the Ryder Cup for Europe. For those three guys to not captain Europe one day, it’s a shame,” said McIlroy after his opening round at the Wells Fargo Championship.
“But as the DP World Tour said in their statement, at the end of the day that was their choice and they knew that these were potentially going to be the consequences of those choices and of those actions and here we are. Yeah, it’s certainly a shame.”
McIlroy will be searching for a new long-term Ryder Cup partner having forged strong partnerships with both Poulter and Garcia in the contest.
The Holywood native paired up twice with the Englishman twice in the 2021 and 2018 editions while he partnered him in their famous Saturday four ball match win over Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson in 2012 that paved the way for the Miracle at Medinah.
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