GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy — With a lopsided scoreboard that offered little suspense, the Ryder Cup was limping its way toward a drama-free final day of matches. But the final hole of Saturday’s session provided fireworks that stretched from the 18th green to the parking lot, drawing Rory McIlroy into an angry exchange of words and injecting an added layer of emotion into Sunday’s final matches.
There were hats, heckles and a pair of heated exchanges.
It started with American Patrick Cantlay sinking an emotional 43-foot putt to win the match and pick up the day’s final point for the United States. The win drew the Americans within five points, 10½-5½, heading into Sunday’s 12 singles matches. But the day didn’t end with a cordial handshake on the 18th green.
After Cantlay’s putt fell, his caddie, Joe LaCava, took off his hat and waved it to the stunned European crowd, and many of Cantlay’s teammates quickly followed suit. The celebration was in response to the European crowd’s heckling of Cantlay, who didn’t wear a hat for the competition. An unsourced news report earlier in the day suggested Cantlay was playing hatless this week as a way to protest the lack of compensation for Ryder Cup players. (He disputed the report later, saying he abstained from the headwear because the hat didn’t fit.)
Fans seized on the news and for several holes, waved their hats at Cantlay, taunting and chanting in his direction.
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McIlroy might not have minded LaCava’s response, except he still had a putt to hit with a chance to tie.
“[McIlroy] politely asked Joe to move aside,” said Luke Donald, the European captain. “He was in his line of vision. He stood there and didn’t move for a while and continued to wave the hat, so I think Rory was upset about that.”
On the green, McIlroy’s teammates Shane Lowry and Justin Rose confronted LaCava. McIlroy eventually missed his putt and the U.S. celebration continued. McIlroy and LaCava shook hands on the green, but McIlroy was apparently still upset after the match.
Tensions boiled over in the parking lot. A video later emerged of an incensed McIlroy having a heated conversation with Jim “Bones” Mackay, Justin Thomas’s caddie. Lowry got between the two and helped McIlroy get into his car. LaCava apparently was not present for the exchange.
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“Ryder Cup is always passionate,” Donald said. “We’ve seen that many times over the past — again, I will address all 12 of my guys tomorrow. I’ll give them the right messaging, and they will be ready to play.”
A furious Rory McIlroy confronted a Team USA caddie in the car park, after he was spotted waving his cap in McIlroy's face when lining up his final putt on 18… 😳 pic.twitter.com/N0SaDg7AsS
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) September 30, 2023Zach Johnson, the U.S. captain, said he spoke with LaCava after the match, who told him that he had “talked to Rory and it was all good.”
“What I saw on 18 was a phenomenal putt and a celebration by some of our guys,” Johnson said. “I saw passion and all of what’s great in the Ryder Cup come out. And to my knowledge, based on what I was told, that was defused after the match, and so I’m told it’s all good.”
Cantlay’s putt marked the end of a dazzling final stretch from the fifth-ranked player in the world, which helped his American team gain some momentum following a brutal start to the Ryder Cup. Cantlay birdied each of the last three holes to give the Americans a one-up win despite being down a stroke early.
Both teams will have to regroup for Sunday’s final matches. Cantlay, with LaCava on his bag, is scheduled to face Rose, while McIlroy takes on American Sam Burns.
Ferguson reported from Washington.
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