Watch: Rory McIlroy gets fortuitous bounce off the bleacher, makes remarkable birdie
ATLANTA – Rory McIlroy had the luck of the Irish on his side at 18 at East Lake Golf Club during the first round of the Tour Championship.
After finding a bunker short of the green at the par-5, McIlroy, a native of Northern Ireland, bladed his bunker shot from 39 yards into the bleachers behind the green and got the most generous of bounces. His ball ended up on the green and stopped 17 feet below the hole and he rolled in the putt for the most unlikely of birdies to wrap up a round of 4-under 66.
What was McIlroy thinking as the ball rocketed over the green?
“Oh, no, pretty much,” he said. “Got a little thin, came out a little faster than obviously I wanted it to, but at that point you're just hoping that something is going to happen. All the TIO lovers are going to love that one on Twitter tonight.”
Sometimes it pays to be lucky and good.@McIlroyRory closes the day with a bang 💥 pic.twitter.com/d9RAihADLI
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 21, 2025
Indeed, it might have been the most egregious example of a temporary immovable object benefiting a player but it also came at a most opportune time as the rules officials were on the verge of blowing the horn to suspend play due to inclement weather that was about to hit the area.
“Pretty lucky in the end,” McIlroy said. “I think as well, if it hadn't have come down and we had to drop, we mightn't have got finished, so lucky in a lot of different ways, lucky for the score and lucky we got done.”
Scottie Scheffler, who shot 63 and trails Russell Henley (61) by two strokes, marveled at McIlroy’s good fortune.
“I have never rooted so hard for somebody's ball to come back, outside of my partner in a team event,” he said. “Because we're walking to 18 and Bones told us they were going to blow at any second, so I'm watching his ball fly towards the grandstand. I'm like, ‘Oh, my gosh, we've got no way of finishing this thing,’ so I was relieved when I saw it come back on the green.”
As the saying goes, it's better to be lucky than good.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rory McIlroy bladed a bunker shot and somehow managed to make birdie
