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It was a drop heard round the world as Rory McIlroy placed a ball that went into the water at the Players Championship. After he missed and sent the ball out of play, he dropped it at a questionable spot, and it got his tee partners arguing. Ultimately, after a 12-minute delay, he played from there and took a double bogey on the hole.
It was one of the more viral moments of the tournament, and it even got former PGA Tour golfer Johnson Wagner interested. In hilarious fashion, the ex-golfer turned reporter took it upon himself to try and uncover the exact spot the ball landed.
Wagner recalled the situation on Sirius XM Radio:
"He said, 'I need you to go out there and check out that spot that Rory dropped from and see what we can do with it.' I went out there and I had some range balls and I said, 'I think if we set up the camera from the right side, and we have the other camera on me, I can throw the ball where I think it hit and maybe we can determine that it crossed the line and get people to quit talking like Rory took a bad drop.'"
He ultimately did do exactly what he suggested, and the result was rather comical:
"The first time I watched the replay of it from the wide angle... I just wet myself laughing at how ridiculous I looked throwing those golf balls that hard. My son was with me all week and he was cracking up the whole time. It was so fun."
Wagner joked that he got people asking if his shoulder was fine the rest of the week given how violently he'd thrown the balls.
Ultimately, the entire situation ended up being insignificant. While Rory McIlroy did end up tied for first (he dropped a stroke on Xander Schauffele because of this hole), he didn't win.
In fact, the Northern Irishman faded in the last couple of rounds as Scottie Scheffler put on a historic display and won. McIlroy was T19 for the entire weekend.
His tee partners who argued with him, Viktor Hovland and Jordan Spieth, didn't do particularly well either. Spieth missed the cut and Hovland finished T62 out of 73 placements.
Can Rory McIlroy finally win a Masters?
Every year since 2014, Rory McIlroy has tried and failed to win a Major. And every single year of his career, he has been unable to capture a green jacket. All this time later, it's the only Major he hasn't won, and pretty much the only thing in the sport he hasn't accomplished.
This season gives him yet another shot at completing the career Grand Slam, a feat that so few have ever accomplished. Rory McIlroy is not the favorite to win - that would be defending champion Jon Rahm - but he does have the second-best odds. McIlroy has slightly better odds than Scheffler, who won in 2022.
