Agree with everything you said except this. I think he dodged it. There's certainly no love loss between Rory and the guys who left for Liv. If he honestly tried to initiate conversation with him, he could have just said "yes, but he didn't respond." All the BD and BK drama that went on has given me the context for why I think he's a whiner and dodged that question.
I heard Nicklaus tell a cool story about how competitive he and Palmer were. They would play Bridge with their wives on the 6 hour flight over for the British Open. Instead of an hour of bridge and 5 hours of sleep, they played the entire flight because no one wanted to be on the losing side after an hour.