Rory declined opportunity to be playing captain at future Ryder Cup

Rory McIlroy said he's been approached about serving as Team Europe's playing captain at a future Ryder Cup, but the five-time major champion isn't interested in the dual role.

"I've been asked to do that and I've turned it down," McIlroy told reporters Wednesday, per Golf.com. "The idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon coming up has come up and I've shot it down straight away. I don't think you can do it."

McIlroy didn't specify for which future event, but the 2027 Ryder Cup is notably being played at Adare Manor in Ireland. McIlroy hails from Northern Ireland.

U.S. captain Keegan Bradley could potentially fill the dual role for this year's event at Bethpage Black in September. Since being named captain in July 2024, Bradley has picked up two PGA TOUR victories at the 2024 BMW Championship and the 2025 Travelers Championship. He ranks 10th in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings this season.

"When they called me and told me that I was the Ryder Cup captain, the first thing they said was, 'We want you to be the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer in (1963),'" Bradley said after winning the Travelers.

Palmer was the last playing captain for either team in Ryder Cup history. While not the same competition, Tiger Woods notably served as playing captain for the United States' victory over the Internationals at the 2019 Presidents Cup.

McIlroy further elaborated on what would make the dual role so difficult.

"I just think the commitments that a captain has the week of, you think about the extra media that a captain has to do, you think about the extra meetings that the captains have to do with the vice captains, with the PGA of America in Keegan's case, preparing your speech for the opening ceremony," McIlroy said.

"There's a lot of things that people don't see that the captain does the week of the Ryder Cup, especially now that the Ryder Cup has become so big. If you had said 20 years ago, yeah, I think it was probably possible to do, but with how big of a spectacle and everything that's on the line in a Ryder Cup now, I just think it would be a very difficult position to be in."

Luke Donald is the European captain for the 2025 Ryder Cup.

Europe has won eight of the last 11 Ryder Cups, though the Americans have won the last two events on U.S. soil.