Patrick Cantlay Seems To Bow Down To Rory McIlroy, Weirdly Claims 'D**k' Comment Was Taken Out Of Context

The viral moment between Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, and Cantlay's caddie Joe LaCava during the 2023 Ryder Cup is old news at this point, but the story continued to have layers added onto it with both players reflecting on the weekend in Rome.

The whole saga between McIlroy and Cantlay began during Saturday's Ryder Cup action when LaCava waved his hat near McIlroy on the final hole of their match. McIlroy was so heated that he wanted to start a parking lot brawl after exchanging words on the green with anyone who would listen after losing the match.

McIlroy shared his version of what exactly transpired back in November, a little over a month after the incident, and made it clear that he is not a fan of Cantlay's.

“My relationship with Cantlay is average at best,” McIlroy told the Irish Independent. “We don’t have a ton in common and see the world quite differently.”

“Joe LaCava used to be a nice guy when he was caddying for Tiger, and now he’s caddying for that d**k he’s turned into a … I still wasn’t in a great headspace.”

The headline grabber here is McIlroy calling Cantlay a d**k and then emphasizing it by saying he's such a big d**k that he turned LaCava into one.

Patrick Cantlay Doesn't Mind That Rory McIlroy Called Him 'A D**k'

It would be more than understandable for Cantlay to be frustrated with McIlroy after he blatantly attacked him and LaCava through the media.

Cantlay doesn't seem to have taken any offense at all with what McIlroy said, however. He claims that all is good between himself and McIlroy, or that's the message he's rolling with publicly at least.

“I think we’re both highly competitive and we’re both trying to be the absolute best,” he says. “I think we both admire that part of each other," Cantlay told GOLF.

“Look, I talked to him post-Ryder Cup and, y’know, everything was cordial and all good. Yeah, I saw that (d**k comment). I think it was taken out of context. And that’s kind of the world we live in, where the headline drives the story."

Cantlay clearly isn't interested in starting some sort of war with McIlroy, which is a smart move given the two operate on separate planets popularity-wise, but to claim that the story "was taken out of context" feels like a rather soft stance to take.

Something as simple as 'it is what it is, Rory is free to have his own opinion' would have been one thing, but to say the story was driven by a headline when the headline is one professional golfer calling another "a d**k" is questionable, and doesn't exactly help Cantlay's cause in the very one-sided battle.