Rory McIlroy believes he gave Tiger Woods Covid as the two prepared for his year’s Open.
McIlroy says he and Woods had been playing at the the JP McManus Pro-Am in Ireland in the run-up to the Open when he started to feel symptoms.
“I said to [my wife'] Erica, ‘I’m feeling a bit weird. I’m just going upstairs to lie down for a bit.’ I slept for maybe two hours and the sweat was just pouring off me, then Erica took my temperature and it was sky high,” McIlroy told Ireland’s Sunday Independent. “I rang Tiger: ‘I’m not feeling so good here.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, I feel OK.’ But he texted me at 10 o’clock that night, chills, fever, and I’m like, ‘Fucking hell, I’ve just given Tiger Covid! This is horrendous!’ So we both had Covid going into The Open.”
The world No 1 did not say in the interview whether he had tested positive for Covid during the Open but he experienced symptoms, such as a loss of taste.
“On Tuesday night I went to the Champions Dinner and it was lovely,” he said. “I was sitting there drinking water and they poured a glass of wine, a lovely 2005 Bordeaux, and I was like, ‘Ahh, I’ll just have a little sip,’ but I couldn’t taste it. The whole week of the Open I didn’t have any taste, and everything smelled like vinegar to me. Everything. It was really strange.”
McIlroy entered the final round of the Open in first place, but was overtaken by eventual champion Cameron Smith and runner-up Cameron Young to finish in third place. He did not say in Sunday’s interview whether he believed the virus took its toll as the tournament reached its conclusion.
“I got beaten by a better player this week. It’s not life or death,” McIlroy said at the time. “The putter just went a little cold.”
Woods, still feeling the effects of a serious car crash in February 2021, missed the cut.
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) November 28, 2022
On Monday, Woods said he will not play at this week’s Hero World Challenge after developing plantar fasciitis. He still intends to compete in the PNC Championship alongside his son, Charlie.
