Chinese customs leaves hole in one in McIlroy’s golfing trophy collection

THE Chinese government has a history of detaining dissidents, but putting the US Open golf trophy under lock and key sounds too bizarre to be true.

Yet Chinese customs have the US Open trophy in their possession and they’re refusing to release it to Rory McIlroy or any of his representatives.

McIlroy had intended to showcase the trophy he won at Congressional in his closing six events of 2011 — the Lake Maclaren Shanghai Masters, the WGC-HSBC Champions, last week’s Mission Hills World Cup, this week’s UBS Hong Kong Open and his final two events of the year, the Dubai World Championship and the Asian Tour’s Thailand Golf Championship commencing on December 15 in Bangkok.