PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Rory McIlroy sent a video message on Friday night to the Great Britain & Ireland team before Saturday’s start of the 50th Walker Cup against the United States: “Please beat them.”
McIlroy also included a bold Ryder Cup prediction too.
The video seemed to work in the morning foursomes session as GB&I raced to a 3-1 lead but the Americans battled back to take a 6½-5½ lead after the first day of play.
McIlroy competed in the 2007 Walker Cup for GB&I on home soil in his native Northern Ireland at Royal County Down in a match his team narrowly lost. As first reported by Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine, McIlroy sent a motivational video to the 10-man team in hopes of inspiring the team, which is seeking to become just the third GB&I team to win on foreign soil.
“As someone who played a Walker Cup and wasn’t able to quite get it done, and then to go on to play Ryder Cups and be able to beat the Yanks in their own backyard, nothing feels better,” said McIlroy, who was on the victorious European Ryder Cup team that rallied from a 10-6 deficit to win the Ryder Cup in 2012 in what has been dubbed “the Miracle at Medinah.”
McIlroy is set to play in his eighth Ryder Cup later this month at Bethpage Black and has said that winning a road Ryder Cup is one of the toughest achievements in golf. Winning a road Walker Cup may be even more rare. McIlroy ended his video with a message that likely will be repeated as fodder to rally the U.S. side and likely will make way to American Captain Keegan Bradley.
“Please beat them because I know we’re going to beat them at Bethpage,” McIlroy said.
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