{"id":688165,"date":"2026-06-06T15:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/688165\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T15:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:50:12","slug":"justin-thomas-says-incident-involving-rory-mcilroy-will-never-happen-again-it-was-nuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/688165\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Thomas says incident involving Rory McIlroy will never happen again, \u2018It was nuts\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy both endured incredibly difficult days on the golf course on Friday at The Memorial Tournament.<\/p>\n

The conditions were incredibly challenging for the entire field at Muirfield Village on Friday, with the average score creeping over 74.<\/p>\n

McIlroy posted a 74 on day two, while Thomas grinded hard for a round of 75.<\/p>\n

Justin Thomas<\/a> and Rory McIlroy<\/a> played in the most challenging conditions of the day, but they both made it through to the weekend at The Memorial Tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Ben Jared\/PGA TOUR via Getty Images<\/p>\n

McIlroy changed to a heavier shaft in his driver before The Memorial<\/a>, but he still struggled to keep the ball on the fairway.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Justin Thomas has been working incredibly hard on his game<\/a> since returning to action after undergoing back surgery in November, but for scant reward so far.<\/p>\n

Justin Thomas says incident involving Rory McIlroy will never happen again<\/p>\n

As Thomas and McIlroy struggled around Muirfield Village on Friday, an incredibly rare incident occurred.<\/p>\n

Thomas spoke to the press after his second round and commented on the moment when his ball hit McIlroy\u2019s coin on the green for the second day running.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, it happened yesterday,\u201d the 33-year-old said.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Ben Jared\/PGA TOUR via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ball was directly in front of his coin yesterday. And I had to mark it and move it. Then he went first and he missed it, and then I moved it back, I went second, and I missed it to the exact same thing, my ball went right in front of his coin, mark it, had to move my coin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen it happened today. Like it was like that, what was it, where Zalatoris a couple years ago or something, like had a ball finish on someone\u2019s coin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the same kind of thing. Like it just doesn\u2019t \u2014 it will never happen again in my career. It was nuts.\u201c<\/p>\n

It would have been incredibly rare if it just happened once, but for it to happen twice in two days was, as Thomas rightly said, \u2018nuts\u2019.<\/p>\n

Justin Thomas on why he hugged Rory McIlroy after round two at The Memorial<\/p>\n

Rather than shake hands on the last green as players usually do, Thomas and McIlroy shared a warm embrace.<\/p>\n

And Thomas lifted the lid on exactly why he and McIlroy did that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a mutual hug,\u201c the two-time major champion admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just looked at each other and I think we both, we were like, we need a hug.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe probably realized I needed one maybe more. It was a grind. It was a different grind for him, but, yeah, we were just battling out there.\u201c<\/p>\n

Muirfield Village absolutely beat up Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy on day two of The Memorial Tournament, but they both loved to fight another day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy both endured incredibly difficult days on the golf course on Friday at The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,28868,296269,6082,99,294064],"class_list":["post-688165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-justin-thomas","tag-muirfield-village","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sports","tag-the-memorial-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688165","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=688165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}