Rory McIlroy’s Controversial Moment at Players Championship Led to Hilarious Postgame Show Segment

Rory McIlroy racked up 10 birdies in his first round of the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass to earn a share of the first-round lead on Thursday.

One of his bad shots, however, garnered most of the attention from his round and led to an incredible segment on Golf Channel’s postgame show.

In case you missed it, McIlroy pulled his tee shot on the par-4 seventh hole (his 16th hole of the day) into the water. He didn’t know exactly where it crossed and had a long discussion with his playing partners about where it might have bounced before going into the water. There was some debate that it might have bounced below the hazard line, which would have forced him to take a drop much farther back than the spot he chose.

Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Viktor Hovland discuss McIlroy's drop on No. 7.

Rory makes double bogey to move from solo leader to T2. pic.twitter.com/dkV6a5Q22W
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 14, 2024

Fans watching on TV could only see that the ball bounced, not where it landed, so nobody knew with 100% certainty where it should be dropped.

After the round, Golf Channel’s Johnson Wagner went out to the seventh hole and did some amazing investigative work:

This whole segment made me laugh so hard. Greatest sport.pic.twitter.com/LDIVSzqwcP
— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) March 15, 2024

Golf fans had so many jokes:

This is better than any investigative journalism I’ve seen on our own government in 10 years. https://t.co/I0eVeFzeal
— Sports Liker (@Ianmurray7) March 15, 2024

Imagine a sideline reporter at an NFL game.

“There’s some debate whether the receiver did drag his feet or not on the touchdown. I’m going to perform three different catches to best simulate the three possible outcomes.” https://t.co/lKiP0oJHMO
— Joshua Ray/NFL Draft SZN (@Josh_Ray_A) March 15, 2024

That first throw made me scream 🤣 How on earth can you recreate something that nobody saw https://t.co/Qj5A7002DS
— Matt Chivers (@mgchiversNCG) March 15, 2024

I'm in legit tears https://t.co/1m2BhMmDOI
— Kyle (@heweymack2449) March 15, 2024

.@johnson_wagner looking at the ground like https://t.co/vPTnuFzZL6 pic.twitter.com/fyIlILASq0
— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) March 15, 2024

NBC producer sending @johnson_wagner out to the rough. https://t.co/VbMTErjtAo pic.twitter.com/ALLe9m0QX2
— Carr for the course (@Carr4thecourse) March 15, 2024