Luke Donald arms European Ryder Cup players with VR headsets for New York clash

Donald’s latest step to give his team the best possible chance of winning on US soil on Long Island was revealed by Rory McIlroy after the Masters champion signed off with a seven-under-par 65 in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

The VR headsets were given to the 11 European team members competing in the Rolex Series event at the Surrey venue during a get-together on Tuesday and McIlroy said he’d already been wearing his.

“Just to simulate the sites and sounds and noise,” he said of their purpose. “That's the stuff that you are going to have to deal with. So it's better to try to desensitise yourself as much as possible before you get in there.”

Asked what the VR had been calling him, McIlroy added: “You don't want to know. Not for publication. They said, ‘how far do you want this to go? And I said, ‘go as far as you want’. You can get them to say whatever you want them to say. So you can go as close to the bone as you like.”

At the Team Cup in Abu Dhabi earlier in the year, Donald arranged for an American comedian to hurl abuse at players in an attempt to simulate the atmosphere that the Europeans will be facing in the 45th edition of the transatlantic tussle. He told Tyrrell Hatton he looks like a “Tesco bouncer”.

McIlroy, who will be making his seventh appearance in the event, had a foul-mouthed fan ejected during the 2016 match at Hazeltine after being the target of unnecessary abuse.

“Yeah,” he said of it having been an example of someone crossing the line, “but I think that was on me to not react the way that I did. “I have to do a better job of putting the blinkers on and not seeing and hearing everything out there as well. Yeah, it wasn't a great comment, but I shouldn't have reacted.”

For the second week in a row, McIlroy eagled the 72nd hole, rolling in an even longer putt on this occasion than the one that saw him force a play-off before going on to win the Amgen Irish Open at The K Club.

Having also eagled the fourth, where he was close to making the first albatross of his career, and making five birdies as well, it was an impressive final competitive round before turning his attention to the Ryder Cup.

‘I feel a lot different going into this Ryder Cup’

“There was a stretch of holes there where I played a lot of good golf,” he opined, having finished with a 12 under total. “Good to see before going into the Ryder Cup. Nice to finish on a high and looking forward to the next couple days (the European team are visiting Bethpage Black on Monday and Tuesday) and getting refamiliarised.”

McIlroy broke down in tears at Whistling Strait four years ago after feeling he’d let his team-mates down as Europe suffered a record defeat at the hands of the Americans.

“Yeah, 2021 wasn't a great year,” he admitted. “I felt a little bit lost with my golf game going into Whistling Straits. Didn't play well at all there. It was the first Ryder Cup I was ever dropped for a session as well. Yeah, I feel a lot different going into this Ryder Cup.”