Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald makes feelings clear about Rory McIlroy at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald praised Irish Golfer, Rory McIlroy, after his win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The tournament concluded on Sunday at the Pebble Beach Golf Links in California.

Donald has represented Europe in the Ryder Cup four times, in 2004, 2006, 2010, and 2012. Europe won all the four competitions. He was appointed as Europe's Ryder Cup captain for the 2023 event. Europe won the biennial tournament by a 16.5 - 11.5 victory against the United States. He's Europe's captain for the 2025 Ryder Cup as well.

In the interaction after the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, as reported by Normal Sport's founder Kyle Porter, McIlroy greeted Donald with:

"Captain! How you doing?"

Donald quickly responded:

"I just came to watch greatness."

In a recent interview with BBC, Rory McIlroy said that winning another away Ryder Cup was one of his three goals for the rest of his career. The other two are winning the Masters and an Olympic medal.

McIlroy has been in a great run of form and has had two wins and four top-5 finishes in the last five starts. In the post-tournament press conference, he was asked about the biggest challenge in returning to his best form and whether that challenge is mental, physical, or a combination of both. He said, via Tee Scripts:

"I think it's a combination of everything. I think for me it's always the mental side of it. That probably is the biggest barrier between me being good and being great.

"You know, for the most part over the course of my career I've had the physical attributes and hit the ball long and been able to do things that maybe some other guys aren't able to do, but it's sometimes been my mind or my thought processes held me back a little bit. Again, just going back to what Alan was saying, I think I'm much better equipped now to handle whatever is thrown my way," he added.

With the win, McIlroy gained 700 FedEx Cup points and jumped to third in the standings. Sepp Straka is on top with a total of 799 FedEx Cup points.

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Rory McIlroy talks about the importance of winning at Pebble Beach

In the post-tournament press conference, Rory McIlroy talked about the importance of winning at one of golf's most historic venues, the Pebble Beach. He placed the venue alongside Augusta National and St. Andrews and said:

"Yeah, it's very cool. There's a few what I would call cathedrals of golf here, Augusta, St Andrews obviously, maybe a few more you could add in there. I had a big fat zero on all of those going in here. To knock one off at Pebble is very cool."

The World No. 3 said:

"Yeah, I'm a big historian of the game and I remember all the championships that have been played here, and to add my name to that list is pretty cool."

Pebble Beach has hosted six U.S. Opens, with the seventh slated to happen in 2027.