The final day of the Ryder cup was off to a bizarre start when Rory McIlroy arrived at Medinah just 10 minutes before the start of his singles match.
McIlroy: Late to the party.
McIlroy was due to face American Keegan Bradley in the third of the 12 singles contests at 11:25am local time, but only arrived in the car park in an unmarked police car at 11:15am.
The world number one had just a few minutes to warm up before his match with one of the star American performers this week.
It's not clear why McIlroy was late, but one poosibility is that he was confused by the time zones, with the start time listed in TV coverage as 12:25 EST, which is 11:25 Central Time in Chicago.
European captain Jose Maria Olazabal told Golf Channel that his heart was racing when he discovered McIlroy was late.
"We did not have that in mind," Olazabal added. "All of a sudden we realised Rory was not here and started to look for him. Finally we got hold of him and he came in with a police escort with 10 or 11 minutes to go."
Former captain Colin Montgomerie was particularly unimpressed: "That is absolutely ridiculous at this level. It's quite unbelievable for the world number one golfer. How this happened I do not know.
"Where is the captain? Where are the vice-captains? Where is his caddie?"
Update
After beating Keegan Bradley 2&1 on Sunday, McIlroy confirmed that he had in fact gotten his tee time wrong as a result of the change in time zone.
"I was just casually strolling out of my hotel room when I got a phone call saying you have 25 minutes," McIlroy revealed. "I have never been so worried driving to the course.
"Luckily there was a State Trooper outside who gave me the escort, if not I would not have made it on time.
"It's the most worried I've ever been," McIlroy added. "If I was playing for myself, I'd be fine. It's my own fault. But to let down all the boys and vice captains and captain - I would never have forgiven myself."
golf365.com