Rory McIlroy on Ryder Cup bow celebration

Omnisports

September 30, 2016 11:09 PM

A hostile atmosphere created by fans of the USA prompted Rory McIlroy to get creative at the Ryder Cup.

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Having cheekily bowed to the crowd after holing a crucial eagle at the Ryder Cup on Friday, Rory McIlroy has revealed the celebration was planned.

McIlroy, playing with rookie Thomas Pieters, holed out for a three after a brilliant approach shot on the par-five 16th at Hazeltine to seal a 3 and 2 win over Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar.

The Northern Irishman reacted theatrically, bowing to the partisan galleries and clenching his fist exuberantly, as Europe recovered from losing the morning foursomes to trail just 5-3.

"For me, even before I hit that putt, I wanted to put an exclamation point on that session for us," he told a news conference.

"I honestly actually thought about the celebration before I hit the putt. I knew it had a good chance of going in. It was downhill, I just had to get it started on the right line and gravity did the rest.

"It's a hostile environment out there, and I just want everyone that's watching out there to know how much this means to us, how much it means to me personally and obviously us as a team.

"You know, we're not going down without a fight. It was four-zip after the morning. We've pulled it back a good bit, and we plan to pull it back even further going into tomorrow."

Asked if he is concerned about providing Team USA and their supporters with additional motivation, McIlroy said: "No. No worries on my part. I bowed to them, said, 'You're welcome for the show,' and we move on."

Pieters meanwhile, having lost 5 and 4 to Johnson and Kuchar alongside Lee Westwood in the foursomes, was delighted to learn from the example of McIlroy's game and attitude.

"It's nice to see how he just hits the shots that need to be hit under pressure," he said.

"He gets so fired up. Maybe this morning, nobody really got fired up on our team, but especially this afternoon, it was cool to see how passionate those guys are, and I think that I still need to learn because I've been pretty quiet, I think."

Omnisports

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