Rory McIlroy ANGERED in clash with Patrick Cantlay’s caddie after exuberant celebration at the Ryder Cup on the day he was supposed to complete his redemption story 

• It was supposed to be the day Rory McIlroy completed his redemption arc 
• However, on Saturday at the Ryder Cup, he became angered with a US caddie 
• Mail Sport’s new WhatsApp Channel: Get the breaking news and exclusives here 

When Rory McIlroy walked down the hill from the 16th tee to the fairway as the shadows lengthened yesterday evening, it felt like one of the great scenes in the emotional hinterland of this competition.

Lines of noble cedars stood like sentries, silhouetted against the fading light and thousands of fans sang McIlroy’s name and waved their caps in the air. It felt as if we had been transported back to the Matthews Cup Final and a golden age of sport.

It felt as if McIlroy was on the brink of a new kind of greatness. He and Matt Fitzpatrick were one up with three holes to play against Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark and the Ulsterman was on the verge of winning his fourth successive point in this Ryder Cup.

His Ryder Cup record has been ordinary until now but this weekend had transformed it. He had been a winning machine. Close out this match and he would be on the brink of being one of a select few to win five points in a Ryder Cup weekend.

Close out this match and all the bad memories of his performance at Whistling Straits two years ago, when he wept with the guilt of letting down his team-mates, would be wiped out. Close out this match and he would overtake Tony Jacklin, one of the great figures of Ryder Cup history, in the all-time points list.

It felt as if McIlroy was on the brink of a new kind of greatness on Saturday at the Ryder Cup

The redemption story that he had so desperately hoped for was snatched away from him, temporarily at least

McIlroy embroiled in a bitter row with Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava, after Cantlay sank a huge putt and LaCava celebrated exuberantly

But it did not turn out like that. The redemption story that he had so desperately hoped for was snatched away from him, temporarily at least. And instead came something altogether more ugly.

A night that once seemed destined to be a night of celebration for McIlroy and his team-mates, a night when Europe should have made victory in this Ryder Cup little more than a formality, descended into a night of recrimination and anger.

That precious lead in that final match was lost, McIlroy tried to calm the galleries around the 18th green when they shouted abuse at Cantlay as he prepared to putt, but then became embroiled in a bitter row with Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava, after Cantlay sank a huge putt and LaCava celebrated exuberantly.

LaCava overstepped the mark on the 18th green. There is little doubt about that. He attempted to remonstrate with McIlroy as McIlroy was trying to prepare for one of the most important putts of his career and persisted in arguing with him. He made himself part of the action. And so instead of McIlroy celebrating a great day, things ended rather differently. 

He was captured on camera in the players’ car park at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, screaming abuse at someone out of view and having to be restrained by Justin Thomas’s caddy, Jim Mackay, before he was shepherded into a car by team-mate Shane Lowry.

This was not the way the day was supposed to end for McIlroy. For so long, it seemed that he and Fitzpatrick would bring a point home for Europe in the final game of afternoon fourballs and stave off the first hints of a USA comeback.

McIlroy had led from the front in the match. He had put his pairing ahead with a clinical birdie on the fourth hole and they had clung on to that slender lead, or been in a tie, all the way to the 16th.

Knowing that the scoreboard around them was turning American red and after Cantlay and Clark had brought the match all square on the 10th, McIlroy played a magnificent hole on the 14th to restore Europe’s advantage.

LaCava overstepped the mark on the 18th green and there is little doubt about that 

The pair faced off as a potential day of redemption turned ugly for McIlroy

Now that Cantlay (left) and LaCava stoked the fire within him, it would take a brave man to bet against McIlroy

He hit a monster drive off the tee that put him in prime position for his iron shot into the green, which he nailed. Then he calmly slid in a 10-foot putt to win the hole. He must have believed he had the ghosts of Whistling Straits on the run. ‘I have been waiting for this opportunity for two years,’ he had said a couple of hours earlier. ‘Whistling Straits was a disappointment but I wanted to put it right and I wanted to redeem myself. Now I have the opportunity to go unbeaten for the week and I would love to do that.

‘It would be amazing to win 5 out of 5. I have always said that if I won zero out of 5 and Europe won the Ryder Cup, I’d be happy but I’m now in a position where I can see the finish line a bit and it means a lot to me to play as well as I have over the last couple of days in a pressure-packed arena like this.’

And now he saw the finish line. Or he thought he did. And now we saw the hats waving for him as he walked down the 16th. But those caps were not waving for him.

They were waving for Cantlay, a jape from the massed banks of European fans to try to unsettle him because a story was circulating that the reason he was not wearing a hat was because he was protesting about not being paid to play in the competition. The taunts backfired. In the last three holes, Cantlay played like a man possessed. And when he sank that putt on the 18th, LaCava took his hat off and waved it manically and lingered on McIlroy’s line. McIlroy made his displeasure known and the crowd booed lustily.

McIlroy could not make his putt, nor could Fitzpatrick and so, for the first time in the day, the Americans had the lead. They still trail 10½ to 5½, a margin that has never been overcome on the final day’s singles, but they do have some momentum.

And they have spoiled McIlroy’s week. To add to his woes, it meant that Clark was able to make good on comments he had made in the week — and for which he had been criticised — about how he believed he could beat McIlroy if they faced each other.

‘When you win against Fitzpatrick, who is a US Open champion and a player like Rory, who I have the utmost respect for, it makes it even sweeter,’ said Clark.

The Americans have some momentum but Europe only need four points from 12 singles matches to regain the Ryder Cup and now that Cantlay, LaCava and Clark have stoked the fire within him, it would take a brave man to bet against McIlroy winning one of them.

Source: Read Full Article