Rory’s moment in time

It will take quite a while for Rory McIlroy to live down the fact he nearly scuppered Europe’s Ryder Cup victory bid before it had even begun.

The world number one was all smiles on Sunday night, having contributed a vital point to an amazing victory at Medinah Country Club by taking down the USA’s hottest player, in Keegan Bradley.

Yet, as well as his share of the plaudits, McIlroy was also presented with a giant alarm clock by his captain, José Maria Olazabal, to remind him of the mad dash he had to take just to make his tee-time.

The Illinois state trooper who saved McIlroy’s bacon by ferrying him at breakneck speed through the Chicago suburbs from the team hotel to the course may prove to be Europe’s unlikeliest Ryder Cup hero but the 23-year-old double major champion owes him an enormous debt of gratitude for averting a calamity entirely of the Irishman’s making.

McIlroy had mixed up his tee-time having misread a singles schedule on the Golf Channel website that had given his 11.25am match as 12.25 Eastern Time. It was not until a phone call from manager Conor Ridge had jolted him back into Central Time at the team hotel that McIlroy realised he only had 25 minutes to make the 12-mile journey through traffic and tee off against Bradley.

“I was just lucky that there was a State Trooper downstairs and he could take me and obviously put the lights on and get past all the traffic because once we got off the exit of the highway, I mean, if I wasn’t in that car, it would have taken us nearly 10 minutes to get through that junction,” McIlroy said.

He had not overslept at all, having called his girlfriend, the tennis player Caroline Wozniacki in Beijing at 9am Chicago time.

“So I was up for a while, just hanging around. I got a couple of missed calls from a funny number at half 10. And I thought, who’s that? So I didn’t pick up. I just thought it was someone who was trying to call me and then I got a phone call from Conor Ridge, my manager, a call saying, ‘Are you at the golf course yet?’ And I was saying, ‘No, I’m not.’ And he was saying, ‘You’re teeing off in 25 minutes.’

“And I was, ‘No, I’m not. I’m teeing off in an hour and 25.’ And he said, ‘No, you’re not.’ And then he said, ‘Rory, you are taking the piss?’ And I was, ‘No, I’m not at the golf course. And he said, ‘Well, you’d better get there.’”

Thanks to the policeman, McIlroy arrived with 10 minutes to spare, hit just two practice putts, had a pep talk from caddie JP Fitzgerald and then went out to beat Bradley 2&1.

“Once I got out on the golf course, I calmed down a bit. But I have never been this frightened going to the golf course in my life.

“JP said to me walking around the course, because obviously Keegan was pumped up, if we could just hang in there with him the first six holes, I’d be fine. I was two up after six and that’s all I needed. Imagine if I had warmed up?”

There is a recent precedent of McIlroy’s wayward timekeeping yet he emerged from that unscathed en route to the PGA Championship title at Kiawah Island in August.

“I warmed up at the PGA for 20 minutes and went out and did well,” recalled the Co. Down man. “As Nicolas (Colsaerts) said, you just have to go with what you have that day. And the first tee shot, the first three shots actually weren’t great but I sort of settled into the round. Hit two good shots into four and that’s what got me going.”

Asked if he could imagine what it would have been like had Europe lost by a point as a result of the mix-up, McIlroy replied with a nervous smile: “I don’t want to and I am glad that I am not.

“I mean, the abuse you (media) guys would have given me tomorrow in the paper if we had lost by a point! But I am glad I got here. I won my point for the team and we ended up winning.”

And so a day that nearly began with a disaster for McIlroy finished with the satisfying feeling of triumph as Europe overturned a 10-6 deficit to win the Ryder Cup 14.5-13.5.

“It was just unbelievable. The whole day,” McIlroy said. “We had a lot of belief in the team room Saturday night, winning those last two points definitely gave us the lift that we needed.

“We loaded the top of our order today because we knew that we needed points on the board early. And we won our first five matches. That was the whole foundation to this day. I know all the boys put their heart and soul into this, it’s just unbelievable. The Americans did it to the Europeans in ’99 but on their home turf. But to do it to the Americans here is just incredible.”