FARMINGDALE (AFP) — Rory McIlroy learned what it meant to be on Europe’s Ryder Cup squad watching teammates cry in a locker room as a 21-year-old rookie in 2010.

Now the five-time major champion from Northern Ireland, who completed a career Grand Slam by winning the Masters in April, is the talismanic leader of a veteran side ready to follow him into an emotional showdown against the United States at Bethpage Black.

“He’s a leader. He’s potentially the greatest European golfer of all time. I mean, these things speak for themselves,” Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre said.

“I’ve looked up to him since I was young, and I’ve got no problem walking behind Rory McIlroy if he’s leading the charge. He’s a guy that’s special to the game of golf but very special to the European side.”

World number two McIlroy, 36, has won the Ryder Cup five times in seven appearances but longs to deliver a fifth Europe victory on US soil in a way he couldn’t imagine 15 years ago.

“I watched Ryder Cups growing up. I cried whenever America won — at Brookline. It’s not as if I didn’t feel something when I watched Ryder Cups. But I got into that team room at Celtic Manor and I just saw how much it meant to everyone. I was like, maybe I got this wrong.”

He was there when the 2010 team had a conference call with Spanish legend Seve Ballesteros, who would die the next year of brain cancer at age 54.

“Seve was sick,” McIlroy said. “He’s speaking to the team and we’re all in the team room... and I look around and the majority of the team is crying as Seve is talking to us.”

“And I’m like, that’s it. That’s the embodiment of what the European Ryder Cup team is.”

The legacy Europe captain Luke Donald talks up is more than words. It’s work passed down through generations of Europe golf greats with McIlroy now at the forefront.

“He’s the biggest name we have in Europe,” Spanish star Jon Rahm said. “He’s the better player we have in Europe and he’s definitely the biggest presence. That’s his role.”

“It’s special to have him around. He’s a heck of a superstar. My respect for his game only grows the more time I spend with him.”

“He has gone from being an incredibly good player to a great Ryder Cup player to now being, I would say, the cornerstone that team Europe needs.”