Rory McIlroy reiterates stance despite differing opinions, says LIV Golf players shouldn't be allowed at Ryder Cup

GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy — For Rory McIlroy, it's a flat-out «no.»

U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick is open to having LIV Golf players on Europe's team at next year's Ryder Cup, because, he said, «I just want to make sure that we win.»

Europe captain Luke Donald, meanwhile, is toeing the official tour line when he says he's in «limbo» waiting for the conflict to be decided in the courts.

As several of Europe's top players prepare to play this week's Italian Open on the Marco Simone course outside Rome that will host next year's Ryder Cup, the pre-tournament discussion has been about who should and who should not be included on the 2023 team.

«I have said it once, I've said it a hundred times: I don't think any of those guys should be on the Ryder Cup team,» McIlroy said Wednesday of the players who have joined the Saudi-backed breakaway series.

Litigation is ongoing on both sides of the Atlantic involving the PGA and European tours after LIV golfers were excluded from events, and the divide between the players sticking to the traditional tours and those who have joined the lucrative breakaway series is growing.

But Fitzpatrick, who won his first major title in June, is taking a more neutral stance.

«I just want to win the Ryder Cup.… I want the 11 best guys we can get,» said the Englishman, who lost all three of his matches when the U.S. romped to a record rout in Whistling Straits, Wisconsin, last year. «I'm not really too bothered about where they are going to come from.»

Fitzpatrick even went so far as to reach out to a LIV player at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last week.

«I told him I'd happily have him on the team,» Fitzpatrick said, without naming the player.

Donald was named captain last month after