Rory McIlroy explains why Europe’s Ryder Cup team won’t be captained by LIV Golf members like Ian Poulter

It may not be a Ryder Cup year, but that hasn’t stopped players from discussing the biennial competition between the United States and Europe. The latest version of the conversation stems from Ian Poulter’s interview with Al Arabiya where he expressed a yearning to captain the European side — a desire that may go unfulfilled in the foreseeable future given the current status of the men’s professional game.

“I think it’s hard because we don’t really see them anymore, especially — I’m not sure if Poults gave up his European Tour membership. You know, you need someone around that’s comfortable,” Rory McIlroy said this week ahead of the DP World Tour’s flagship event. “You look at what Luke [Donald] has done the last few years, he’s really made an effort to come over. He played in Czech Republic. He was in Switzerland.

“He’s making an effort to be around the players and be — make the players feel comfortable with him, the up-and-comers that haven’t had a chance yet to be on a team or trying to make a team. With the guys that left, Poulter, [Lee] Westwood, we don’t — how can these young up and comers, you know, build a rapport with them when they are never here? You can’t see them. I think that’s a really important part of a Ryder Cup and a Ryder Cup captaincy.”

Poulter, a European stalwart, has participated in the Ryder Cup seven times and accumulated 16 points before resigning his membership from the DP World Tour last spring amid mounting monetary fines due to his move to LIV Golf. The Englishman violated the tour’s conflicting tournament regulations numerous times and faced fines from the league for each infraction. Fellow LIV Golf members Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Richard Bland all forfeited their memberships from the DP World Tour as well.

According to current DP World Tour regulations, any member who fails to comply with the minimum counting tournament regulation — or does not take up ranked membership in an official season — will be ineligible to serve as a Ryder Cup captain or vice captain for Europe. Under such regulations, Poulter, his fellow Majesticks captain Westwood, and Fireballs captain Garcia are unable to take a leadership position in the European Ryder Cup room.

“I’m not saying that Poulter doesn’t have the credentials to be a Ryder Cup captain, but I just think with the current state of where everything is, you need someone that’s around and showing their face as much as they can,” McIlroy continued. “Right now, that honestly just can’t be them because they are elsewhere.”