Three weeks on after a tumultuous bust up on Ryder Cup Saturday in Rome, Rory McIlroy insists there are no hard feelings between him and Joe LaCava.
It all kicked off late on Saturday evening when Patrick Cantlay holed a long range birdie putt on 18 which proved to be a winner – before McIlroy and Matthew Fitzpatrick could reply with their putts – and burst into celebration. His USA teammates sarcastically waved their caps at the European fans in response to the treatment they had dished out to Cantlay that day.
The ironically capless Cantlay undoubtedly had one of the great days of his career but it was oveshadowed by his caddie LaCava who took his cap waving too far and seemingly refused to step away from McIlroy’s line of vision before he could take his birdie putt.
The unharmonious scenes continued on the 18th green after the match concluded with Shane Lowry having to be restrained from storming onto the green to confront LaCava. Things spilled over into the car park with a furious McIlroy having to be held back by Lowry in scenes akin to a local chipper on a Saturday night.
McIlroy insists he and LaCava are on good terms since and what transpired galvanised the Europeans heading into the Sunday singles.
“Jeez, no, not at all (ill feelings),” he said. “I felt like what happened in the car park galvanised the team and it benefited us.
“Things happen in the heat of the moment. Tensions were high but Joe came into the European team room on Sunday night and had a drink and a chat. I have had a great relationship with Joe over the years and that wasn’t going to change.
“The incident happened. I didn’t want to meet anyone on the Sunday morning because I wanted what happened to fuel me and my focus was on making sure Europe won the Ryder Cup, and then we will sort all the other stuff out after. And it is all fine. We are all friends.”
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