{"id":157624,"date":"2025-09-24T14:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T14:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/157624\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T14:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T14:15:07","slug":"how-a-100mph-cop-car-helped-save-rory-mcilroys-miracle-at-medinah-rory-mcilroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/157624\/","title":{"rendered":"How a 100mph cop car helped save Rory McIlroy\u2019s Miracle at Medinah | Rory McIlroy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Has it really been 13 years since rosy-cheeked Rory McIlroy<\/a> caused teammates, coaches, and a continent\u2019s worth of fans to hyperventilate by coming within a hairsbreadth of missing his tee time for a crucial singles match?<\/p>\n

The scene at the 2012 Ryder Cup<\/a>, recall, looked like something out of The Blues Brothers, except there weren\u2019t any nuns or Nazis around. Having barreled down Illinois highways at upwards of 100mph, its siren blaring, an unmarked cop car came screeching into the parking lot of the Medinah Golf Club, skirted the camera crews huddled to record McIlroy\u2019s frenzied arrival, and deposited him just steps away from the locker room.<\/p>\n

McIlroy at that instant had all of nine minutes to grab something to eat, \u201cwarm up,\u201d and get to the first tee for his match against Keegan Bradley, otherwise he\u2019d be forced to forfeit. Since his team was trailing 10-6 going into Sunday singles, a McIlroy no-show would have ruined one of the most storied comebacks in Cup history, the Europeans\u2019 \u201cMiracle at Medinah.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, it\u2019s hard to imagine the Northern Irishman, who has seized the mantle of the late Seve Ballesteros as Team Europe\u2019s unflagging leader, being so slipshod about the Ryder Cup. But in September 2012, McIlroy was a tender 23, the world\u2019s newly crowned No 1, and the winner that summer of two legs of the FedEx Cup, not to mention the PGA Championship, his second career major. To the young McIlroy, the staid old Ryder Cup must have seemed like weak tea.<\/p>\n

That tea has gotten much stronger for a player who just won the Irish Open in spectacular fashion. At the 2023 Cup in Rome, McIlroy had to be restrained<\/a> after a US caddie interfered with his putting preparation on day two.<\/p>\n

At this week\u2019s Cup, which starts on Friday at Bethpage Black outside New York City, McIlroy and his mates will be trying to become the first team to win on foreign soil since the Medinah crew pulled off their miracle. McIlroy has added fuel to the fire by claiming that winning a Ryder Cup on hostile turf is the hardest thing to do in sports. His hyperbole will only make New York fans chant \u201cUSA!! USA!!\u201d that much louder.<\/p>\n

What caused McIlroy to be so tardy back in 2012? Well, he said he confused Central and Eastern Time that morning as he began a lengthy Facetime session with his then-girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki. His conspicuous absence was noticed by two PGA of America officials, one of whom, Erica Stoll, would five years later become his wife. The pair arranged for a local police officer to provide McIlroy with an emergency ride. Only their quick thinking and the \u201cRyder Cop\u2019s\u201d lead foot kept McIlroy from a lifetime of humiliation.<\/p>\n

To tease McIlroy, US fans began chanting \u201cCen-tral Time Zone! (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap!) and \u201cWhat\u2019s Your Tee Time?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was funny for the first two holes,\u201d McIlroy said later, \u201cand after that I just wanted to shut them up.\u201d Fans also loudly inquired about the severity of McIlroy\u2019s \u201changover,\u201d as well as bellowing, \u201cWas She Worth It?!\u201d with more handclaps thrown in for good measure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s testament to McIlroy\u2019s self-belief that he never let Bradley get ahead of him. The match\u2019s most amusing moment came on the short par-four 15th hole. Led by captain Jose-Maria Olaz\u00e1bal, the brain trust of the European team gathered behind Rory on the tee box. It pained McIlroy to lay up on a drive-able par four, but with a one-up lead and his coaches (plus an entire continent) breathing down his neck, he smartly hit a four-iron into the left-center of the fairway.<\/p>\n

Captain Olaz\u00e1bal got into McIlroy\u2019s grill and sarcastically \u201ccongratulated\u201d him for his judicious tee shot. McIlroy responded by taking off his golf glove and playfully tapping his captain\u2019s nose. Everyone on the tee box, Olaz\u00e1bal included, had a good chuckle. McIlroy\u2019s subsequent birdie all but clinched the match.<\/p>\n

McIlroy\u2019s win was part of the Euros\u2019 clean sweep of the first five singles contests, catapulting them to victory. McIlroy not only became a champagne-drenched hero that day, he (eventually) ended up getting the girl.<\/p>\n

More than anything, his near mess-up at Medinah is the thing that made McIlroy desperate to be a Ryder Cup warrior in the mold of Ballesteros.<\/p>\n

What would have happened if Stoll and company hadn\u2019t been so conscientious and saved his bacon? We don\u2019t know exactly, but it probably would not have been pretty.<\/p>\n

This much is certain: today\u2019s Rory McIlroy, the guy hellbent on kicking butt in Ryder Cups, would not abide for one millisecond any slaphappy behavior from a young teammate.<\/p>\n

Timothy M Gay, an American writer and historian, is the author of Rory Land: The Up-and-Down World of Golf\u2019s Global Icon, now available from Regalo Press\/Simon & Schuster-UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Has it really been 13 years since rosy-cheeked Rory McIlroy caused teammates, coaches, and a continent\u2019s worth of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-157624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}