If you would have given Rory McIlroy a thousand guesses, he still might not have foreseen what happened to him on the 15th green during Saturday’s third round at the BMW Championship at Wilmington Country Club.
As McIlroy was standing on the green assessing his putt, he realized there was a second ball on the green. However, his playing partner Scott Stallings was in the greenside bunker.
The ball belonged to a fan who had crossed the threshold from the spectator ropes to the green and was controlling the ball with a remote.
McIlroy, however, was not impressed and took the ball and tossed it into the water. The fan was then escorted off the grounds.
And let’s be honest, the fan deciding to do this with water right there is just not that bright. The scenario played out in the most likely way.
This is not the first odd encounter that Rory McIlroy has had with a fan recently. Last July at the Scottish Open, McIlroy was waiting on the tee with playing partner Jon Rahm when a spectator walked onto the tee, pulled a club from McIlroy’s bag and started taking practice swings.
He was quickly whisked away by security.
Rory McIlroy was part of a bizarre incident ahead of his second round at the Scottish Open, where a spectator came to the tee and took a club from his golf bag. 😳⛳️ pic.twitter.com/FUhNiE342Z
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) July 9, 2021
“He appeared on the tee, took the headcover off Rory’s driver in the bag then took out an iron and had a couple of swings with it,” an onlooker told The Scotsman at the time. “When someone told him that he couldn’t do that, he replied by saying ‘Why not?’ At that point, the security people assigned to following the group moved in and took him away.”
McIlroy did seem to enjoy this bit more than the one at the BMW.
“Let me put it this way: You could smell the reason why he did what he did,” said McIlroy after the incident. “He was clearly not sober. I’m going to say it was vodka. I’m no expert, but he had a long night for sure. He probably thought it was a fun idea. And, to be fair, it was quite funny.
“At one point, I thought he was going to Happy Gilmore the headcover. I don’t think it put Rory off. He hit maybe his best drive of the tournament off that tee. He started playing beautifully. If anything, it put a smile on our faces. It’s a pretty good story to tell in the future.”
