McIlroy 'shot down' role of Ryder Cup playing captain
'He's one of the 12 best American players right now'
There has not been a playing captain at the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer for a victorious American side in 1963.McIlroy thinks the growth of the event in the decades since means it "would be a very difficult position to be in"."There's a lot of things that people don't see that the captain does the week of the Ryder Cup, especially now that the Ryder Cup has become so big," he said."The captain isn't going to be on the course all day, so the captain is only going to be able to play one session on Friday, one session on Saturday. Would you not rather have the flexibility to go twice if he's playing well? There's just a lot of different things that go into it."That's why, and it's just my opinion, I think it would be very difficult to do."McIlroy played with Bradley for the first two rounds of the Travelers Championship in June, a signature event on the PGA Tour that the American won by a stroke over Tommy Fleetwood and Russell Henley."I definitely think he's one of the 12 best American players right now," McIlroy added."That's why everyone is so interested and it's such a compelling case. "I'm just as interested as everyone else to see how it all plays out."
'I think that extra week off will do me good'
McIlroy will play with world number one Scottie Scheffler at the BMW Championship, teeing off at 16:16 BST on Thursday.The event marks McIlroy's first action since finishing in a tie for seventh at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush in July, after he skipped the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis last week - the opening play-off event of the PGA Tour season.The five-time major winner was criticised by some sections of the media for missing the event, but defended the decision given his schedule for the remainder of the year.McIlroy, who also noted that other players "aren't 18 years into their professional careers", will play at the Irish Open next month before heading to the DP World India Championship in October and the Australian Open in December."I feel like I'm in sort of a different position to some of the guys. I'm playing nine times between now and the end of the year so I've still got a pretty busy stretch coming up," he said. "I think that extra week off will do me good with the events coming up - some big events that are important to me. Irish Open, [the BMW PGA Championship at] Wentworth, obviously the Ryder Cup, and I want to try and win my seventh Race to Dubai."There's some things that are still important to me that I want to go and play in. That was a big part of the reason why I took the week off last week."
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