REVEALED: Michael Jordan celebrated EUROPE’S Ryder Cup win with Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Shane Lowry… who was too star-struck to ask the NBA legend for a photo!

An unexpected guest joined Team Europe’s celebrations in its win against the U.S. in the Ryder Cup earlier this fall, and that person is no other than Michael Jordan, with Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Shane Lowry too star struck to ask ‘His Highness’ for a photo.

McIlroy told the Irish Independent earlier this month that once he and Lowry had left Rome in October, they clanged wine glasses with Jordan to celebrate their exploits. 

All three golfers and Jordan met a McIlroy’s house in Jupiter, Florida. Earlier this year, Jordan, who is good friends with Donald, predicted that Team Europe would go onto defeat the team representing his homeland.

‘Rory and Luke started texting him, and the next thing [you know] we’re sitting there drinking with Michael Jordan, just the four of us, and I’m like, ”Whaat!”, Lowry said. 

Jordan, who usually travels to the location of the biennial competition almost every time it’s played, stayed in America this year. It is well known that the six-time NBA champion is an avid golfer himself. 

Shane Lowry, of Europe, R, and teammate Rory McIlroy celebrate their Ryder Cup win in Italy

What’s more, is that McIlroy and Lowry are both members of Jordan’s private club, Grove XXIII, in Hobe Sound, Florida. 

To most golf fans, it might come as a shock to find out that Jordan raised a glass with members of Team Europe. ‘He’s very much a pro-USA guy,’ said Lowry. 

Jordan, who sold his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets in August, was once the U.S. team assistant captain at the 2009 Presidents Cup in San Francisco.

It seems like that is all in the past now, as Jordan hung out with McIlroy, Lowry, and Donald for three hours, watching Ryder Cup highlights. 

They also brought up issues that sparked controversy during the competition, such as play-for-pay. It was said that American golfer, Patrick Cantlay, who just lost his hat sponsorship with Goldman Sachs, refused to wear a U.S.A. hat over players’ lack of compensation.

Jordan sporting at Team USA hat while looking on during the Ryder Cup in Wisconsin in 2021

‘He sat with us from six to nine,’ McIlroy said. ‘We were talking about the issue of players being paid at the Ryder Cup and he told a story about the U.S. basketball team, The Dream Team, at the Olympics in ’92. ”’Do you think I could have got paid to play in the Olympics? These people are missing the point of what it means.”’

‘He saw the long-term value of winning an Olympics and said he ended up doing way better than if he had taken money there and then,’ McIlroy further said. ‘And that’s pretty much how I see it.’

The four-time major champion added that when he met up with Lowry the next day, he was told by his Team Europe teammate that he ‘so wanted to take a photo’ with Jordan. 

‘I’d give anything for that photograph,’ Lowry added. ‘Can you imagine that on your wall?’