Rory McIlroy fired quite the wild shot, going beyond some spectators on the right side of the fourth hole on Thursday.
One fan noticed that McIlroy’s ball had bounced toward her. After a couple of moments, she decided to pick it up.
The rest of the crowd reacted as you might expect:
The collective “NOOO!!!” from the crowd when she picks up Rory’s ball 💀 pic.twitter.com/LsgI07nyFL
— Fore Play (@ForePlayPod) June 18, 2026 The irony is that nothing particularly notable happens after this, besides potentially a reprimand for the fan.
What happens when a fan picks up a golf ball? The player isn’t punished for this. Obviously, that wouldn’t make sense, because the player didn’t do anything to cause his ball to be picked up.
Instead, the player gets to replace the ball at the spot it had stopped moving. There is zero penalty added to the score.
For McIlroy, the toughest part here is that his golf ball was over on that part of the course in the first place.
Most likely, there’d be no hanging onto a souvenir for that fan, either.
It’s a case of not realizing the correct rhythm of a major golf tournament. Any fans who saw this happen probably won’t make that mistake again.
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