Rory McIlroy’s last competitive outing saw him battling for a £7 million payday in the Tour Championship, but the world number one is equally fired up by the thought of playing for team glory at the Ryder Cup.

McIlroy arrived at Gleneagles on Sunday evening and was among the European players practicing in perfect conditions at the venue on Monday, with play due to get under way on Friday morning.

The 25-year-old famously labelled the Ryder Cup as an “exhibition” the year before his debut in 2010 but contributing to narrow victories at Celtic Manor and Medinah means he appreciates the special nature of the biennial contest.

“It’s a group of people that you know well and they all have one goal, one collective task which is to win the Ryder Cup and beat the US team,” McIlroy said.

“The money doesn’t matter to us any more, it doesn’t matter if we’re playing for millions of pounds all over the world. This means as much to us or even more than any other thing that we play for. It’s a big deal to us, we want to play as well as we can and try to win.

“I arrived here yesterday evening and hit some balls last night, I just wanted to get here a bit early and make sure I am prepared for Friday. It’s been a long stretch (of golf) for me.

“I just wanted to try and take as much time as I could off and get away from the game a little bit but obviously excited about this week.”