{"id":647317,"date":"2026-05-16T20:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T20:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/647317\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T20:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T20:17:16","slug":"rory-mcilroy-quickly-became-the-pga-championships-best-new-meme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/647317\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy Quickly Became the PGA Championship\u2019s Best New Meme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">One of the biggest storylines at Aronimink Golf Club is the extremely slow pace of play. Golfers are taking around five hours to finish their rounds at the PGA Championship. The trio of Justin Thomas, Keegan Bradley and Cam Young were even given a slow-play warning on Friday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/pga-championship\/justin-thomas-disagreed-slow-play-warning-brutally-long-friday-pga-championship\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">which really frustrated Thomas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7k\">The extreme winds and the tough pin placement, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/pga-championship\/why-scottie-scheffler-thought-aronimink-friday-toughest\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scottle Scheffler called<\/a> \u201cthe hardest set of pin locations that I\u2019ve seen since I&#8217;ve been on Tour,\u201d made the pace of play feel even lengthier. There was nothing the golfers could do to pick up the pace with these obstacles.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7n\">The slow play made golfers exhausted on the course, too. Waiting around instead of keeping up the momentum can really mess with the golfers, especially when they\u2019re trying to better their score to make the weekend cut at a major.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7q\">One of those golfers attempting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/pga-championship\/what-i-learned-following-rory-mcilroy-first-round-pga-championship\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to make the cut was Rory McIlroy<\/a>, who entered the second round with a score of 4-over, putting him outside the cut. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/pga-championship\/rory-mcilroy-one-word-describe-abysmal-opening\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">may have called his first round \u201cs&#8212;<\/a>,\u201d but he found his footing a bit better on Friday. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7t\">After scoring 2-under on the front nine, McIlroy had a short break before teeing off on the 10th hole as the groups got a bit backed up. As Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm prepared to tee off, McIlroy decided to find his \u201czen\u201d by sitting down with his back against the back of the tee box. He sat there with his eyes closed to relax before taking on the back nine.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rory McIlroy chilling on the 10th tee box at Aronimink.<\/p>\n<p>Caption this \ud83d\udc47 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FHnAjaBLuJ\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/FHnAjaBLuJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GolfChannel\/status\/2055392856412492055?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7z\">This picture became an instant meme online, and honestly the best one of the tournament so far. McIlroy finding his peace in the middle of a slow, slow round summed up the PGA Championship perfectly. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"82\">And, of course, X users delivered by creating funny captions to pair with the McIlroy meme. Check out some of the best ones we saw.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">When it\u2019s 7.18am and you have a tee time with Garrick Higgo at 7.18am. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wSBw5VGOCX\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/wSBw5VGOCX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sam Harrop (@sam_golf) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sam_golf\/status\/2055393732254482453?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">When the boss asks for &#8220;one more thing&#8221; at 4:55 PM <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PhN0NNpqKz\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/PhN0NNpqKz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fried Egg Golf (@fried_egg_golf) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fried_egg_golf\/status\/2055391984433397953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">When you&#8217;ve decided the only part of your new year&#8217;s resolution of getting in shape that will continue is the protein shake part. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mIV109V9Ei\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/mIV109V9Ei<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shane Bacon (@shanebacon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shanebacon\/status\/2055393649832144988?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Me at 4am in McDonalds <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OrQQiJm6W9\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/OrQQiJm6W9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 RORY FANS (@rory_fans) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rory_fans\/status\/2055392162771050695?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHave a sec for a quick call??\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bSswVSLwBa\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/bSswVSLwBa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Carolyn Zacharias (@heycarolynz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/heycarolynz\/status\/2055397117061984700?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8k\">A meme that will be useful for many situations in the future. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8n\">The \u201czen\u201d worked for McIlroy. He finished 1-over and made the cut for the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>More Golf from Sports Illustrated<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the biggest storylines at Aronimink Golf Club is the extremely slow pace of play. Golfers are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-647317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}