Truth & Rumors: Rory McIlroy thought he blew Ryder Cup for Europe
Late-arriving Rory McIlroy celebrates the European Ryder Cip win with a giant clock (ZUMAPRESS.com).
Central Time Zone victim Rory McIlroy showed up just minutes before his Sunday singles match at the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah before coolly dispatching Keegan Bradley 2&1 to help the Europeans secure their miracle comeback.
But if he looked cool on the outside as he arrived at Medinah in a police car, McIlroy was terrified that he had lost the Cup for Europe.
McIlroy told the story of that morning in an exclusive interview with Ireland's RTE:
“On the Saturday night, before I went to bed, I was watching the Golf Channel and they posted the tee-times (for Sunday). But they posted them in Eastern time and we were in Central time in Chicago, so 12:35 Eastern is 11:35 in Chicago.
“Next morning I get up and get out of the shower at 11am. I get a phone call from Conor, my manager, and he says ‘Are you at the golf course?’, and I tell him that I’m not.
“He says ‘You should be, you’ve got half an hour to your tee-time’.
“And I say ‘No, I’ve got an hour and a half, I’m off at 12:35. He says ‘You’re not. You are off at 11:35’.“I have never been so scared going to a golf course. It was such a mad rush. Luckily there was a state trooper waiting for me and if it was not for him, if I was not in that car, I would not have made my tee-time.
“I actually played my best golf of the whole week on that Sunday!”