Video: Rory McIlroy rushes to make his tee time after showing up late
MEDINAH, Ill. — Rory McIlroy is making a habit out of arriving late to the course for important tee times. One month after he admitted to oversleeping before his final round tee time at the PGA Championship, McIlroy showed up late for his Sunday singles match at the Ryder Cup.
As Keegan Bradley warmed on the putting green, the No. 1-ranked player in the world was nowhere to be found. NBC reported McIlroy wasn't on Medinah's grounds, leading many to wonder if he'd ever arrive in time for his match.
With ten minutes to go before his tee time, an unmarked police car raced into the parking lot and out popped McIlory. He sprinted out of the car and made a beeline to the practice putting green where he used a couple wedges to get loose before walking to the first tee as U.S. fans serenaded him was a chant of "Central time zone."
"My heart was racing," European captain Jose Maria Olazabal told NBC. "All of a sudden, we realized that Rory's not here. We started to look for him [on the grounds] and nobody knew."
It's still unclear why McIlroy was so late for his tee time, but the Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman tweeted that the 23-year-old was blaming the Golf Channel for the mixup. The network apparently had the tee times as Eastern Time on the broadcast, which led McIlroy to believe his 11:25 a.m. tee time was actually at 12:25 p.m.
Even if that's the case, he should've been at the course at least two hours before to warm-up and get his mind right. Arriving with only an hour to spare would've been cutting it incredibly close.
Also, if you're Jose Maria Olazabal, how do you lose track of McIlroy or not call him to get an idea of where he is? It just doesn't make any sense. The good news for McIlroy is he's currently 1-up in his match over Keegan Bradley at the moment, so the lack of warm-up time hasn't been an issue.
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