Commentator ‘stirs it up’ over McIlroy and Spieth relationship | Golf | Sport

It has emerged that McIlroy and Spieth did not practise together ahead of the tournament, with small ‘cliques’ forming amongst players.

Speaking on Sky Sports, commentator Nick Dougherty said: “Interesting dynamic here, there’s never necessarily been a lot of love lost between Spieth and McIlroy. Respect but certainly not best friends out there on tour. They didn’t spend a lot of time playing practice rounds together.”

Fellow commentator Rich Beem then said: “No, I wouldn’t think so. I think there are still little pods out here of guys that you do like to see play practice rounds. The guys from Ireland were having a nice little game of it yesterday afternoon and Spieth will be out there with some of his buddies from college that he played with and or against. Yeah, there are still smaller clicks I guess like in high school.”

Dougherty added: “And there’s the alliance as well obviously the Ryder Cup tying Jon (Rahm) with Rory, but Rory did think Jon should pay his fines and just get on with it as well, which you know, probably wasn’t how Jon felt at the time.”

Beem then responded with: “Ooo, I like it, let’s just get out the blender and start stirring it up, buddy.”

There was a possibility that Rahm would not be allowed to compete for Europe in the 2027 Ryder Cup after being fined by the DP World Tour for his participation in LIV Golf. Those fines have now been paid, with them reportedly totalling around £2.21 million.

Discussing the matter, McIlroy told the Golf Channel last week: “I think it’s good that we have it all behind us.

“I think as a European Ryder Cup player, we all know that having Jon on the team is better than not having him on the team.

“I’m glad that they came to an agreement. It took him a little longer to get there than some of the other guys, but he got there in the end, thankfully.

“It’s good that we can put that behind us and move forward.”