Golf fan bizarrely steals club from McIlroy’s bag

It was one of the most bizarre incidents in a professional golf tournament.

A man strolled calmly onto the 10th tee at The Renaissance Club during the Scottish Open and proceeded to grab a club out of Rory McIlroy’s bag and began making practice swings with it on the tee.

This all took place metres from McIlroy and current World No.1 Jon Rahm during the second round of the tournament.

Video of the incident shows the man walking up to the players, who were waiting with their caddies on the tee, and attempting to pull out McIlroy’s driver out of his bag before being forced to grab an iron instead.

He then heads to the tee area and begins making swings while the players and caddies look on in utter disbelief.

Eventually Rahm’s caddie managed to track down security and the offender was swiftly removed.

“I was surprised. Everyone saw what happened on TV. It was handled efficiently and everything was OK. I had no idea who it was,” said McIlroy after his round.

McIlroy’s playing parter thinks he has a pretty good idea what may have triggered the incident.

“Let me put it this way…you could smell the reason why he did what he did,” said Rahm.

“He was clearly not sober. I’m going to say it was vodka. I’m no expert, but he had a long night for sure. He probably thought it was a fun idea. And, to be fair, it was quite funny.”

Of course, the whole incident could have turned nasty had the offender been in possession of a knife, or worse still, a gun. There’s little doubt that with the Open Championship teeing off this Thursday the R&A will be keen to not see a repeat of last week’s events.

The good news is that our light-fingered friend is unlikely to be allowed anywhere near Royal St George’s.

“At approximately 8am on Friday morning, a spectator entered the 10th tee area,. He was quickly escorted from the tee by security personnel and the matter is now in the hands of Police Scotland,” said a European Tour spokesman.

Unfortunately for McIlroy, Friday’s second round proved to be his last with rounds of 70 and 71 seeing him narrowly missing the cut.

Rahm faired better, finishing in outright 7th at 16-under and only two strokes outside of the playoff.