Rory McIlroy is usually cool and collected on the golf course, but in March, his emotions got the best of him. At the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral Miami, McIlroy chucked his three-iron into a lake where his ball had landed moments earlier.
Seven months later, McIlroy revealed some interesting details. A public apology lowered his fine.
"The fine was reduced from $25,000 to $5,000 because I said I was sorry on the TV interview afterwards," McIlroy told The Guardian.
Here's the apology:
The 26-year-old is ranked No. 3, has four grand slams under his belt. He has earned $28 million in prize money in five years on tour and has a Nike contract worth nine figures.
Two weeks ago, before the FedEx Cup, McIlroy said of the eight-figure top prize:
"Luckily, that amount of money doesn't sort of mean much to me anymore. It will go in the bank and if I want to buy something nice, I will. It's nice to think that you could win $10 million this week, but that's not what excites me.
"It excites me to play well and to try and win. And the FedEx Cup is one of the only things that I haven't put on my golf CV, and that would be more exciting to do than walk away with a check."
So an extra $20,000 fine would not have been that big of a deal for McIlroy. But he apologized anyway.
For the record, a scuba diver retrieved the club and then a certain presidential candidate returned it to McIlroy:
McIlroy went major-less in 2015, but he won twice on the PGA Tour, both in May.
-- Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.
