“Did anyone disrespect the Europe team?”: Fred Couples shares his verdict about the Rory McIlroy x Joe LaCava incident 

One thing might be overshadowing Team Europe's dominant Ryder Cup win, and that's the incidents with Rory McIlroy. Following a big shot on Saturday evening, the United States celebrated wildly, including caddie Joe LaCava. He was a little too rowdy and a little too close for the Irishman, who was lining up a shot to potentially tie and save half a point.

He confronted LaCava there and things got extremely heated. It resulted in McIlroy's only loss of the entire weekend (he went 4-1 and earned a lot of points). After the match, he got into it with another Team USA caddie, Jim Bones Mackay.

The whole thing galvanized Team Europe after Shane Lowry had to take McIlroy away from the situation to cool down. It worked out for them, but PGA Tour legend Fred Couples isn't sure why McIlroy was so upset.

After speaking to some people and watching what transpired himself, Couples has a good picture of what happened that evening:

"Now, we got a chance to get a half. Did someone do a Justin Leonard rant across the green? God bless Rory, cause when he makes a putt in the Ryder Cup he screams and yells and, 'Vamos! Let's go!' and all that. That's what you should do."

He continued, putting the pieces together:

"Joe LaCava was standing, I don't think he moved two feet... I asked him what was said. He said Rory looked at him and said, 'MOVE!' and Joe replied, 'Relax, Rory.'.. Then Joe turned to get out of the way, Shane Lowry and Thomas Bjorn were screaming some things at him, which is fine."

Couples doesn't care about Lowry and Bjorn getting involved, but he doesn't believe what LaCava or Patrick Cantlay did warranted the frustration from McIlroy and company:

"They're protecting the number one player on their team, but he didn't do anything wrong... It wouldn't be a 15-yard penalty in college football. Was Joe right? Probably not. But did anyone disrespect the European Team?"

Rory McIlroy went 4-1 at the Ryder Cup

Rory McIlroy seemed to believe so, but Couples thinks all is fair in love and the Ryder Cup. There's celebration to be made, especially when a half point is available for a team that's been taken to task thus far. Was it entirely appropriate? Not in Couples' eyes. Was it disrespectful? Couples doesn't think that, either.

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Rory McIlroy turned anger into fuel

Whether or not the incident was right or wrong, it did propel Rory McIlroy to new heights. The golfer said that once he'd calmed down, he resolved to make them regret ever celebrating:

“I don’t think it just motivated me, it motivated the entire team … we wanted to go out there and make it hurt for them. I felt like I used it to my advantage and came out with a different level of focus and determination and, in a way, it gave the whole team a bit of fire in our bellies."

It seemed to work, although Team Europe was already dominating before that occurred.