Rory McIlroy believes it will be difficult for Ian Poulter or Lee Westwood to be a future Ryder Cup captain because they no longer have a connection with Europe's emerging stars after defecting to LIV Golf.
Poulter was a stalwart for Europe at Ryder Cups and typically saved his best performances for the team event, earning 16 points from seven appearances.
Now playing on the breakaway LIV circuit, Poulter said in a recent interview with Al Arabiya English that he would relish the opportunity to be captain of the European team - even if that was currently not possible because he resigned his European tour membership after joining LIV.
McIlroy said players like Poulter and Westwood would struggle to reintegrate themselves after an unsavory split from the European tour, and pointed to current Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald's efforts to bond with the team's best players before last year's matches against the United States outside Rome.
"You look at what Luke has done the last few years - he's really made an effort to come over. He played in the Czech Republic. He was in Switzerland," McIlroy said Wednesday, speaking ahead of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. "He's making an effort to be around the players and make the players feel comfortable with him - the up-and-comers that haven't had a chance yet to be on a team or trying to make a team.
