'I feel like play-offs in golf are a bit like tie breaks in tennis. It's really about who blinks first'

Luke Donald’s gathering of 10 of his 12-player team on the entry list offers an early opportunity for some serious team bonding.

PATIENCE: Rory McIlroy had to be patient during his play-off to claim the Amgen Irish Open. Pic: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

It was not just the tens of thousands of Irish golf fans at The K Club on Sunday afternoon who will have been cheered by Rory McIlroy’s fighting spirit to come from behind and claim the Amgen Irish Open in a sudden-death play-off.

With a Ryder Cup now just three weeks away, McIlroy’s tour de force in his national Open was a piece of immaculate timing. The five-time major champion’s draining of a series of clutch distance putts in regulation and taking Sweden’ s Joakim Lagergren into extra holes with a nerveless 27-foot eagle putt, was a welcome boost for European captain Luke Donald ahead of the team’s departure for New York and the short trip out along the Long Island Expressway to Bethpage Black.

So too the positivity oozing from Donald’s leading pick Shane Lowry as he reflected on his week in Kildare. Though not nearly as eye-catching as the Masters champion’s performance, Lowry was nevertheless encouraged by his play from tee to green, and confident his putting issues are an easy fix.

The next test for both Irishmen comes this week at Wentworth in the DP World Tour’s flagship event the BMW PGA Championship at European golf’s headquarters. It is a tournament both men have won at a course beloved by each, McIlroy in May 2014 at the outset of his previous annus mirabilis when he went on to both Open and PGA Championship success, while Lowry was victorious in September three years ago, finally converting his consistent run of form at the event.

“I just see the golf course really well and I like it around there,” Lowry said following his tie for 15th at seven under par on Sunday. “It's one of my favourite places in the world to be as well, it's just nice.

“The golf course does suit my game. You don't stand up and bomb it, you kind of plod it around. Your mid-iron play needs to be strong.

“But the area itself, I just love going to it. Since the first day I went there, it's amazing, you drive into somewhere and you just feel like a nice feeling with the whole place.” 

It was 12 months ago that McIlroy came closest to adding to his maiden win at Wentworth only to lose in a play-off against American Billy Horschel. That he completed his third play-off victory of 2025 at Lagergren’s expense at The K Club on Sunday to follow defeats of JJ Spaun at The Players Championship and Justin Rose to complete his career grand slam at The Masters is a testament that extra holes no longer hold any fear for the world number two.

“I started my career with a couple of losses in play-offs, with three losses I think, Switzerland, Hong Kong and the Honda Classic,” McIlroy said. “But then after that, it's been much better.

“I feel like play-offs in golf are a bit like tie breaks in tennis. It's really about who blinks first. It's almost about just being a little bit patient.

“Even that 18th hole, we both played pretty safe the first two times. And then Joakim was probably being a little bit more aggressive with his second shot on the third go-round and just pulled it slightly and hits it in the water.

“It's sort of like, I've watched a lot of tennis this week because of the US Open. If you can just hold your serve, it really is about that. Thankfully, I did enough to get over the line. Same thing at the Masters, same thing at the players.” 

The celebrations by some in The K Club galleries as Lagergren’s ball plonked into the greenside water struck the only bum note of an otherwise exhilarating day’s golf but they will not sidetrack McIlroy as he looks to continue his preparation for Bethpage Black this week and the likelihood he will be on the other side of such partisanship when the 45th Ryder Cup matches get underway Stateside.

“I want to have a good week again next week at Wentworth, a golf course that I lost in a play-off last year, a golf course that I've played well on over the years. Just want to continue to keep playing well.” 

Donald’s gathering of 10 of his 12-player team on the entry list offers an early opportunity for some serious team bonding. Uniform fitting by high-end Italian designer fashion brand Loro Piana will be followed by a team dinner and on the conclusion of the tournament the Europeans will travel en masse across the Atlantic for a two-day reconnaissance mission at the Ryder Cup venue next Monday and Tuesday.

By the time the team reassembles in Bethpage ahead of the September 26-28 matches with the USA, Team Europe should be primed and ready for the toughest of defences following their rousing victory in Rome two years ago and well-briefed on the inevitable partisanship from the American fans.

“I think when we get to Wentworth next week, that's when it's going to start getting exciting,” Lowry said. “We're all going to be there. Players and caddies and everyone. And we have a dinner next week that we're all going to.

“So, that's going to be the start of it and then when you get on the plane to go for your practice trip, then you're really in it. Myself and Thomas (Detry, his Sunday Irish Open playing partner) were actually talking walking around today and he was asking me about it and I was saying, ‘I think we've got an amazing opportunity to do something great here’. And if we were to win the Ryder Cup, I think it would be one of the greatest wins of all time.”