{"id":886416,"date":"2026-06-23T04:41:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T04:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/886416\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T04:41:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T04:41:30","slug":"rory-mcilroy-fires-back-at-us-open-heckler-with-big-belly-gesture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/886416\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy fires back at US Open heckler with big-belly gesture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rory McIlroy got the last laugh at this heckler at the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n<p>As McIlroy teed off alongside Maverick McNealy to start their day on Saturday afternoon from the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Long Island, the reigning Masters Champion heard one loud, boastful fan screaming, and McIlroy made sure he was heard without saying a word.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBunker! Get in the bunker!\u201d the fan said at the tee spot with his phone in his hand, looking to capture a potentially viral moment.<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy began walking toward the fairway when he looked at the fan and made a belly gesture with his hands, dissing the apparently heavyset heckler.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.66015625;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39751223\" width=\"389\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/rory-mcilroy.png\" alt=\"Rory McIlroy walking across the green.\" class=\"wp-image-39751223\"  \/>Rory McIlroy points to a big belly during the US Open at a fan. <\/p>\n<p>Golf is normally a game of respect, and at some tournaments, like the Masters, event organizers do not allow phones, which some have speculated would solve issues like these at other tournaments.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/golf\/comments\/1ubtquq\/rory_chirps_overweight_fan_us_open_2026_round_3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Another fan even took to Reddit<\/a>, claiming this same fan was screaming throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>One fan heard someone yelling, \u201cget in the water,\u201d while <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/21\/sports\/wyndham-clark-wins-second-us-open-in-four-years-after-near-collapse\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">eventual winner Wyndham Clark<\/a> was putting with speculation that it was this same fan looking for 15 minutes of fame.<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy ended the tournament at 3-over, tied for 32nd, while Clark held on at 4-under for a wire-to-wire win.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39751630\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/rory-mcilroy-northern-ireland-reacts-131667326.jpg\" alt=\"Rory McIlroy reacts during the third round of the US Open on June 20, 2026.\" class=\"wp-image-39751630\"  \/>Rory McIlroy reacts during the third round of the US Open on June 20, 2026. AP Photo\/Seth Wenig<\/p>\n<p>At one point on Sunday, a Sky Sports microphone picked up a rabid McIlroy reaction to a poor shot on the third hole when he screamed: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/sport\/other-sport\/golf\/just-go-home-rory-f-34161927\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Just go home, Rory f\u2013king hell<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Clark\u2019s win on Sunday, he told reporters that he was unhappy with the event ending too late in the day and reducing the number of fans at key moments, calling them \u201ca little flat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, it was kind of unfortunate that we\u2019re finishing in the dark and people weren\u2019t really out there because there were some obviously key, big moments, and it did kind of get a little flat,\u201d Clark said as he entered Sunday with a six-shot lead. \u201cHopefully tomorrow there\u2019s a bunch of fans and stuff, but for me, it\u2019s still really important, and I still felt the moment. It\u2019s just maybe unfortunate that there weren\u2019t all the people there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy got the last laugh at this heckler at the U.S. Open. As McIlroy teed off alongside&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":886417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[47],"tags":[1430,1478,62,67,132,68,22558],"class_list":["post-886416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-us-open-golf"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116797591187433523","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}