Rory McIlroy had a tee time of 11:25 a.m. on Sunday morning at the Ryder Cup for singles match play, and he nearly missed it. Those who were watching the television coverage as the final day of action started in Medinah on Sunday would have seen McIlroy enter the grounds with a police escort. The confusion supposedly had to do with time zones.
McIlroy says he was watching the Golf Channel Saturday night and kept seeing that he was scheduled to tee off against Keegan Bradley at 12:25 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The problem with that is Illinois runs on Central Standard Time, meaning McIlroy was thinking that his tee time was an hour later than it actually was. He arrived at the grounds just 11 minutes before teeing off.
European team captain Jose Maria Olazabal said he and the European team began looking around nervously as McIlroy’s tee time approached before calling him to let him know he had made a mistake. Bradley has been arguably the hottest player on the U.S. squad during the Ryder Cup, so McIlroy had his work cut out for him having to go into his round ice cold.
While McIlroy’s tardiness created a bizarre scene in Medinah, it is not unheard of in golf. Rory actually overslept before the final round of the PGA championship last month, and we saw how that turned out for him. U.S. veterans have slept right through their tee times and been disqualified before, so at least McIlroy was able to arrive in time.
