Rory McIlroy can be Europe’s ringmaster at the Ryder Cup circus

It is a statement that Rory McIlroy has still not lived down, even after 14 years. Back in 2009, when he was a bundle of scampish energy with Dennis the Menace hair, he had the temerity to belittle the Ryder Cup as an “exhibition” that was “just not that important an event for me”. Any exuberant celebrations, he suggested, would be beneath him, with the then 20-year-old promising: “I’m not going to go running around fist-pumping.”