A video message from McIlroy’s caddie Harry Diamond was played at Monday’s Ryder Cup Team Europe meeting, leaving McIlroy in tears.

This will be McIlroy and Diamond’s third Ryder Cup together since they met as seven-year-olds at Holywood Golf Club.

Regarding the personal messages received by the Europe team, McIlroy said, “there were a lot of tears shed.”.

“Harry brought us through our journey, just in a way.”

During an interview with Sport Northern Ireland in Rome, the world number two was visibly emotional as he described Diamond’s words.

When we were kids, we met on the putting green at Holywood Golf Club when we were seven years old, and we played amateur golf together throughout that time, and now we are playing our third Ryder Cup together, along with everything in between. It’s amazing.

“We’re all here playing for our teammates, our captain, and our vice-captains, but to receive such a message and to realize how many more people you’re representing by being here, it’s really, really cool.”

“The other guys received messages that meant just as much to them.”

Luke Donald’s approach to “getting the emotion out of the way” on Monday was different from previous captains, McIlroy said.

We’ve kind of gone light-hearted at the beginning of the week, then we get hit with an emotional bomb before Friday’s match.”

This year is a little different.

So it flipped a little bit, and I believe that was part of Luke’s plan.”