The tough Ryder Cup veteran we will see at Bethpage this week was a touch less careful when he was younger. Especially during a very impo...
The tough Ryder Cup veteran we will see at Bethpage this week was a touch less careful when he was younger. Especially during a very important time in 2012
How a police cruiser going 100 mph helped save Rory McIlroy's Miracle at Medinah
This week at Bethpage, we'll see the tough Ryder Cup veteran who was a touch more careless when he was younger. Especially during a key time in 2012
Timothy M. Gay, Wednesday, September 24, 2025, 11:00 a.m. BST
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It's hard to believe that it's been 13 years since Rory McIlroy, with his red cheeks, almost missed his tee time for a big singles match, making teammates, coaches, and fans all over the world freak out.
Remember how the 2012 Ryder Cup looked? It was like something out of The Blues Brothers, but there were no nuns or Nazis present. An unmarked police car sped down Illinois highways at speeds of over 100 mph, siren blasting. It screeched into the parking lot of the Medinah Golf Club, went around the TV teams who were there to film McIlroy's wild arrival, and dropped him off only steps from the locker room.
At that moment, McIlroy had only nine minutes to eat, "warm up," and go to the first tee for his match against Keegan Bradley. If he didn't make it, he would have to forfeit. A McIlroy no-show would have spoiled one of the most famous comebacks in Cup history, the Europeans' "Miracle at Medinah," because his team was down 10-6 going into the singles on Sunday.
It's hard to believe that the Northern Irishman, who has taken over as Team Europe's tireless leader from the late Seve Ballesteros, was so careless with the Ryder Cup. But in September 2012, McIlroy was only 23 years old, the freshly proclaimed No. 1 in the world, and had just won two legs of the FedEx Cup and the PGA Championship, his second major title. The young McIlroy must have thought the old Ryder Cup was boring.
That tea has become a lot stronger for a player who just won the Irish Open in a big way. At the 2023 Cup in Rome, McIlroy had to be held back after a US caddie got in the way of his putting practice on day two.
McIlroy and his friends will try to become the first team to win on foreign territory since the Medinah group pulled off their miraculous at this week's Cup. It starts on Friday at Bethpage Black outside New York City. McIlroy has made things worse by saying that winning a Ryder Cup on enemy ground is the hardest thing to achieve in sports. His exaggerations will just make New Yorkers shout "USA!! USA!!" even louder.
Why was McIlroy so late in 2012? He explained that morning that he mixed up Central and Eastern Time since he was starting a long Facetime call with his then-girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki. Two PGA of America officials noticed that he was missing, and one of them, Erica Stoll, would marry him five years later. The two of them set up for a local cop to give McIlroy a ride in case of an emergency. McIlroy would have been humiliated for the rest of his life if it weren't for their quick thinking and the "Ryder Cop's" heavy foot.
Fans in the US started chanting "Cen-tral Time Zone! (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap!)" to make fun of McIlroy. and "What time is your tee time?"
McIlroy remarked afterward, "It was funny for the first two holes, but after that I just wanted them to shut up." Fans also loudly asked how bad McIlroy's "hangover" was and yelled, "Was She Worth It?!" with more clapping for good measure.
McIlroy never allowed Bradley go ahead of him, which shows how much he believed in himself. The 15th hole, a short par-four, was the funniest part of the match. The European team's intellectual trust, led by captain Jose-Maria Olazábal, stood behind Rory on the tee box. McIlroy hated having to lay up on a drive-able par four, but he was wise to shoot a four-iron into the left-center of the fairway since he was one up and his coaches (and an entire continent) were breathing down his neck.
Captain Olazábal got in McIlroy's face and sarcastically "congratulated" him for his smart tee shot. McIlroy took off his golf glove and playfully tapped his captain's nose in response. Everyone on the tee box, including Olazábal, laughed out loud. McIlroy's next birdie all but sealed the match.
McIlroy's win was part of the Euros' clean sweep of the first five singles matches, which helped them win. That day, McIlroy became a hero covered in champagne, and he even got the girl in the end.
More than anything else, McIlroy wanted to be a Ryder Cup warrior like Ballesteros because he almost messed up at Medinah.
What would have happened if Stoll and the others hadn't been so careful and saved his life? We don't know for sure, but it probably wouldn't have been good.
We can be sure of this: Rory McIlroy today, the player who wants to win Ryder Cups at all costs, would not put up with any silly behavior from a young teammate for even a second.