SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — What was she thinking?!
That was the general sentiment when a fan appeared to pick up Rory McIlroy’s ball on the 4th hole — his 13th of the day — in the opening round of the 126th U.S. Open.
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The incident unfolded when McIlroy blocked his approach from the left rough on the par-4. His ball sailed right, took one bounce off a cart path and settled into a patch of matted-down grass. As the fan, in a white hat and black skirt, approached the ball, a swarm of other fans followed.
Then came the apparent offense: The spectator bent over, reached down with her left hand and — a moment before the footage cuts out — seemingly grabbed the ball. On the telecast, you could hear a collective groan from the crowd, as if the woman had just stripped a van Gogh off the wall at the Met.
We’d seen this movie before. At the Open Championship at Portrush last summer, a fan snagged McIlroy’s tee ball on 17 after McIlroy had lost a tee shot into the right rough. McIlroy, as the rules dictate, simply replaced his ball where it had laid and played on.
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At Shinnecock on Thursday, however, a ruling was not required. That’s because — plot-twist alert! — the fan did not, in fact, pick up the ball.
When GOLF.com inquired with the USGA rules department about what had happened, a spokesperson said by email:
Right after McIlroy’s second shot on the 4th hole came to rest, it appeared on the broadcast that a fan was about to pick it up when the camera moved away.
However, based on the testimony of fans and a review of the available video, his ball was not lifted.
The fan stopped just before picking it up and McIlroy played the ball as it lay.
It’s unclear if McIlroy was aware of the scene that had played out around his ball; he was not asked about after his round. Either way, he appeared unbothered in the moment, chipping the ball to 18 feet and holing that putt to save par. McIlroy eagled the next hole, the par-5 5th, to get to three under but then gave back those two strokes with bogeys on 8 and 9 to finish with a one-under 69.
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“I think with the conditions today, anything under par or anything around even par is a good score,” McIroy said after his round. “It was a day to really just keep yourself in the tournament and not shoot yourself out of it, which is exactly what I did eight years ago here.”
In that U.S. Open, McIlroy opened with an 80 and missed the cut by two.
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