A prominent golf reporter had a tense run-in with the Rory McIlroy at last year’s US Open while working on a book about the Irish star.
Alan Shipnuck has covered the sport for decades, including a long spell at Sports Illustrated and a stint with Golf Magazine. His latest work details the career of McIlroy, who earned the career grand slam last year and cemented himself as one of the PGA Tour’s key figures.
McIlroy, who won the Masters earlier this year and finished seventh at the PGA Championship, has an established relationship with Shipnuck, whose latest book “Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf’s Most Human Superstar” was released earlier this year, but that didn’t stop the pair from sharing a tense moment at Oakmont.
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“He’s the most compelling golfer of the post-Tiger generation,” Shipnuck told Awful Announcing. “He’s a big personality. He’s a great talker. He is the most emotionally available superstar golf has probably ever seen. He lets you into his heart. That’s why people have responded so strongly to his Masters win.
“And of course, he’s thrilling to watch on the golf course. The way he plays the game, the highs and the lows. His victories have been spectacular. His defeats have been heart-wrenching. In what can be a very boring sport, he’s a star.”
Shipnuck has covered the sport for decades alongside McIlroy -Credit:Getty Images
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Shipnuck continued, noting the body of his book took time and trust from the European Ryder Cup star.
“He was warming up for the second round of the U.S. Open [last year],” said Shipnuck. “I went out to chat with his manager, Sean O’Flaherty. Rory, I mean, everyone saw it after the Masters last year. He was in this weird headspace, having climbed the mountaintop and trying to figure out what’s next.
“The U.S. Open is a frustrating tournament. Oakmont’s probably the hardest course in the world. So, he was not in a great place. He saw me chatting with Sean and just turned around. He was like, ‘F— off.’ I was so surprised. I froze, and he said it again. It didn’t seem like we were going to have a productive conversation in that moment, so I did, in fact, ‘f— off.'”
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Shipnuck thinks this year’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills is wide open. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has just one win so far this season, and many others are set to break through.
“The secondary kind of storyline is there’s a bunch of players who haven’t won this year; elite players, whether it’s Xander Schauffele, Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Cantlay,” said Shipnuck. “You can go down the list. There are a lot of guys who are playing well, but they haven’t gotten it done.
“It just feels like the most wide-open U.S. Open in a while because Scheffler has not been dominant. Rory hasn’t won a U.S. Open in 15 years. So, it’s going to be a tournament with an action-packed leaderboard.”