{"id":616817,"date":"2025-12-06T23:03:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T23:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/616817\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T23:03:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T23:03:15","slug":"rory-mcilroy-derailed-by-litter-at-australian-open-in-rogue-banana-peel-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/616817\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy derailed by litter at Australian Open in rogue banana peel incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy’s third round at the Australian Open was bizarrely affected by a banana peel. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Masters champion<\/a> is nine shots adrift of leader Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen at Royal Melbourne heading into the final round. <\/p>\n

\"McIlroy<\/a><\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

McIlroy stumbled upon a wild piece of misfortune on SaturdayCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

A third-round 68 could have been even better if not for a rogue bit of litter on the course Down Under. <\/p>\n

McIlroy found the thick rough with a loose drive at the par-four second hole, but it was not the long grass that caused him the most trouble. <\/p>\n

His ball came to rest under a banana peel – which was likely left there by a spectator who should have used a bin. <\/p>\n

Golfers are allowed to remove loose impediments but not if doing so causes the ball to move. <\/p>\n

READ MORE ON TALKSPORT<\/p>\n

With the banana peel touching McIlroy’s ball, the Northern Irishman was unable to shift it without incurring a one-stroke penalty. <\/p>\n

Instead, the world no.2 decided to play the lie, advancing his ball a small number of yards before ultimately making a double-bogey six. <\/p>\n

Speaking after his round, McIlroy said: “It was sort of a double whammy – it was in the tough grass, and under a banana skin\u2026<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a loose impediment and it was resting on the ball so, if I moved the banana peel, the ball would have moved so I just didn\u2019t even try. <\/p>\n

“I mean, I shouldn\u2019t have been there in the first place, but yeah, it wasn\u2019t the best start.”<\/p>\n

Rory’s bucket list <\/p>\n

Since finally completing the career grand slam at Augusta National<\/a> in April, McIlroy has turned his attention towards becoming a truly global player. <\/p>\n

The 36-year-old signed up for this year’s Australian Open in a bid to add more prestigious titles<\/a> to his legacy. <\/p>\n

Before the tournament began, the five-time major winner said: “I\u2019ve talked about trying to win at some of the most important venues in golf and this week is one of them. <\/p>\n

“You think about the [Australian Opens] people have won at Royal Melbourne and how highly regarded it is… <\/p>\n

“The quality of the golf down here, the players from here and how excited [the fans are]; it just feels like this country is starved of top level golf.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy’s third round at the Australian Open was bizarrely affected by a banana peel. The Masters champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[4723,192151,2826,4287,191891,11432,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-616817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-australian-open","9":"tag-banana-peel","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-rory-mcilroy","12":"tag-royal-melbourne","13":"tag-rules","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}