Rory takes aim at 'disgraceful' Ryder Cup antics as vision reveals act ...

Rory McIlroy conceded Joe LaCava’s “disrespectful” antics left him the “angriest I’ve been in a long time” and believed it helped fuel Europe to a famous Ryder Cup victory.

McIlroy was left irate when LaCava, the caddie for Team USA’s Patrick Cantlay, aggressively celebrated his outstanding putt by twirling his hat in the air as the Northern Irishman prepared for his own putt.

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Vision soon emerged on social media of just how close LaCava got to McIlroy and the two certainly traded words as the caddie essentially followed him across the green.

Speaking after play had wrapped up on Day Three, McIlroy explained why LaCava’s antics set him off and revealed he told the American team what the caddie did was “disgraceful.”

“On the 17th green and the 18th green, I am telling the crowd to quieten down to let Patrick hit his putts,” McIlroy said.

“I was trying to afford Patrick the opportunity to do what he did, which is great. And then I am trying to read my putt on 18 and he [LaCava] is standing directly in my way.

“I don’t feel like I was afforded the same opportunity to make a putt as Patrick was. I was trying to do the right thing and that was definitely the wrong thing to do.

“That’s not the way this game should be played. Not by a player, caddie, anybody. I thought it was completely disrespectful. It’s the angriest I’ve been in a long time.”

“I said it to the US guys, I thought what went on was disgraceful. I made that clear.”

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After the day’s play had wrapped up, McIlroy was seen in a furious exchange with Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay, Justin Thomas’ caddie, in the Marco Simone car park.

The Northern Irishman even revealed his anger was set to boil over and result in him confronting the entire American team in the locker room, only for a teammate to hold him back.

“I was actually about to drop my bag and go into the American locker room because I was so angry but Shane [Lowry] kind of held me back from doing that,” McIlroy said.

“The first American I saw was Bones and I know he is close to Joe so I sort of let him have a mouthful.

“I texted Bones this morning. He was the first American I saw after I got out of the locker room so he was the one that took the brunt of it. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

With emotions running sky-high, it could have easily derailed McIlroy and Team Europe’s push for victory.

Instead, they displayed a cool head and secured a comfortable win on Day Three to snatch back the Ryder Cup from America’s hands.

The dominant performance no doubt came from burning desire to win, but McIlroy revealed LaCava’s antics served as plenty of extra motivation to silence the Americans.

“I was hot coming out of that yesterday,” he said.

“I was pretty angry. I didn’t agree with what happened on 18, but I think I let it fuel the fire today and it focused me and I was able to go out there and get my point.

“We talked about it as a team last night. We felt like it was disrespectful, and it wasn’t just disrespectful to Fitz [Matt Fitzpatrick] and I. It was disrespectful to the whole team.

“I needed to calm myself down because I could have let it bring me down the wrong path but I didn’t. I made sure it focused me.