Rory McIlroy appeared to take matters into his own hands after being heckled by a fan during a practice round at the Players Championship.
McIlroy is currently at TPC Sawgrass as he prepares for the PGA Tour’s flagship event, The Players, which gets underway on Thursday.
The World No.2 was undertaking his practice round alongside Shane Lowry on Wednesday when his errant tee shot ended up in the water.
Having hit his second effort off the tee, McIlroy then approached a heckler who had reportedly yelled out ‘just like 2011 at Augusta’ when his first ball landed in the water.
McIlroy famously held a four-shot lead heading into the final round of the 2011 Masters before firing an eight-over-par round of 80 to crash out of contention.
And the Northern Irishman was clearly not keen to be reminded of his most famous collapse, approaching the fan and saying: ‘Let me look at your phone’.
However, having taken the device, McIlroy then appeared to walk away from the fan and down the fairway with the phone still in his hand.
The spectator appeared taken aback by McIlroy’s action and was frozen with his hand outstretched as the World No.2 walked away from him.
It remains unclear whether McIlroy returned the phone to the fan in question at a later date.
McIlroy, however, has undoubtedly turned his full focus to the first round on Thursday as he looks to land his second win of the PGA Tour season.
The 35-year-old has enjoyed a steady start to 2025, with top-20 finishes in his last two events after winning in his maiden PGA Tour start of the year at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
‘It feels good,’ McIlroy said when asked about the state of his game before the Players.
‘I’d say even the two finishes post-Pebble have been almost like the worst that they could be. I finished bad on Sunday at Bay Hill [at the Arnold Palmer Invitational].
‘I finished bad on Sunday at Torrey Pines [at the Genesis Invitational], as well.
‘But the one thing I would say is the turnaround in my putting from Torrey to Bay Hill was great. I finished, I think, fifth [actually seventh] in putting last week, so to see that turn around was really encouraging.
‘That’s something for me to be really encouraged about going into this week, obviously, and then the next few months.’
McIlroy will play alongside World No.1 and defending champion Scottie Scheffler and World No.3 Xander Schauffele in a marquee group for the opening two rounds at Sawgrass.
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