Golf
Curiosities at the PGA! A fan teased on the green with a control ball, McIlroy threw it into the water. He had his club stolen again last time
A somewhat unprecedented moment was seen on Saturday at the BMW Championship as part of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. You’d think he’d seen it before and that something like this is not really possible at this level. But some “fans” are simply shameless.
A somewhat unprecedented moment was seen on Saturday at the BMW Championship as part of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. You’d think he’d seen it before and that something like this is not really possible at this level. But some “fans” are simply shameless.
In football, we see a grotesque naked man running around on the football field, in hockey, sometimes an animal lands on the ice. But believe me, an alligator walking across a golf course is nowhere near as unusual as Saturday’s moment at the BMW Championship in Wilmington.
Suddenly, a third ball appeared on the 15th hole that belonged to neither Rory McIlroy nor Scott Stallings, who were just about to finish the hole. A balloon began to dance around the flag on the 15th green, looking as if it were alive.
In reality, it was merely a (un)successful prank by one of the fans who was propelling the ball with a remote control. After several attempts by McIlroy to hit the ball away, the four-time major champion couldn’t take it anymore, picked up the ball and threw it into the water hazard next to the green.
McIlroy subsequently received a round of applause from the crowd in a similar fashion to his eagle on the hole. It took the organizers a while, but they eventually managed to escort the miscreant off the grounds of the Wilmington Country Club golf course.
MCILROY VICTIM FOR THE SECOND TIME
It wasn’t the first time, however, that Rory McIlroy was the victim of one of the fans’ unseemly pranks. In 2021, before the second round of the Scottish Open, a spectator walked up and without hesitation pulled Rory’s club out of his bag, which he then walked off with.
McIlroy, his caddie and teammate Jon Rahm were left standing like scalded men. A random bystander, as the sinner was called on social media, tried a practice swing several times afterwards before being pacified by security.
Afterwards, a group of golf professionals laughed about the whole incident. One of them remarked that it was obvious from the poor grip that he was not a golfer. Jon Rahm remarked that he laughed at the whole situation in retrospect and that the random passerby had probably had a very heated night at a bar somewhere.
Source: GolfDigest