The final of golf’s four major championships begins later this week at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England, and players are fulfilling their pre-tournament media obligations.
As one would expect before an Open Championship, golf fans were hanging on every word six-time major winner Rory McIlroy gave to the press. But it was one question in particular during McIlroy’s press conference that sent the internet into a tizzy. That question came from Shane Ryan of Golf Digest, who asked the Northern Irishman a question about his legacy.
Bro what the FUCK is wrong with everyone ?!?! pic.twitter.com/jrVKWrHrO8
— Christopher Powers (@CPowers14) July 14, 2026
“How concerned are you with your legacy past when you’ll be on this Earth,” Ryan posed. “How concerned are you with how you’ll be viewed in 100 years? Do you think about that kind of thing? Does it matter to you since you won’t be here? I mean, how does that go?”
“No, I don’t really care,” McIlroy responded. “I would like to think that people that love and care about me think a certain way about me, but yeah, I’ll be long gone, I’ll be dead, I don’t think I’ll be seeing what people say about me…”
The framing of Ryan’s question received a lot of attention online. Most of the criticism suggested it was bizarre to ask someone in the prime of their career, like McIlroy, if they’ll care about what people might think of them when they’re dead.
Ryan, apparently sensing his question was becoming a topic of conversation, defended the question in a social media post.
Preemptively, to all the haters: I will *not* be apologizing for asking a player if he cares about his long-term place in history. It is a good and normal question, and spawned by Scottie talking about unprompted a few minutes before. 100 years from now, history will say, “good… https://t.co/DZuY5oWBhC
— Shane Ryan (@ShaneRyanHere) July 14, 2026
“Preemptively, to all the haters: I will *not* be apologizing for asking a player if he cares about his long-term place in history. It is a good and normal question, and spawned by Scottie talking about unprompted a few minutes before. 100 years from now, history will say, ‘good job, Shane,’” Ryan wrote.
The missing context is key here. Scottie Scheffler discussed his legacy after his death earlier in the day, which makes Ryan’s question much more relevant.
“I don’t really play, like, for a place in history. I’m not playing for anything like that because – this is going to sound a little morbid – at the end of the day, I’m going to live my life, and it’s going to end. When it ends, I’m going somewhere else, and I’m not going to be here anymore,” Scheffler said.
As an isolated incident, is it kind of strange for a reporter to ask an athlete about their legacy after they’re dead? Sure. That’s what makes this clip pretty funny. But there have been many worse questions posed at press conferences. And McIlroy’s answer at least gave us some insight into how he thinks about this stuff.
