{"id":433725,"date":"2025-03-20T20:05:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T00:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/?p=433725"},"modified":"2025-04-23T16:39:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T16:39:42","slug":"rory-mcilroy-snaps-at-heckler-over-2011-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/rory-mcilroy-snaps-at-heckler-over-2011-masters\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy Again Snaps at a Heckler, Backlash Mounting From Fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, March 11th, during practice rounds in the leadup for the Players Championship<\/a>, Rory McIlroy had an encounter with another golfer.\u00a0 During this practice round, McIlroy shot a ball into the water.\u00a0 Standing nearby was an amateur golfer, Luke Potter, who remarked:\u00a0\u201cJust like the 2011 Masters\u201d<\/p>\n

This is in reference to an event in McIlroy\u2019s career that he is not proud of.\u00a0 In response, he took Potter\u2019s phone and managed to get him booted from the course.\u00a0 This has led to McIlroy getting a fair amount of criticism, but also some empathy given the event that was referenced.<\/p>\n

What Happened To Rory McIlroy During The 2011 Masters?<\/h2>\n

For Rory McIlroy, his performance at the end of the 2011 Masters was not his finest moment.\u00a0 What happened was that for most of the game he was doing quite well until the end.\u00a0 He started getting bogeys and his ball kept landing in some tough spots.\u00a0 Like when a ball bounced off the trees and landed in an area between cabins and struggled to get his ball back onto the course.\u00a0 He ended up not cutting the Masters.\u00a0 By the 13th hole he looked to be on the verge of tears as he realized that he wouldn\u2019t make it for the Masters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was my first experience of it,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cHopefully, next time I\u2019m in this position, I\u2019ll be able to handle it a little better.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not a good game for McIlroy to say the least.\u00a0 He has taken what happened in stride following the game and would go on to win the US Open just two months later.<\/p>\n

\n

Rory took a heckler\u2019s phone and dipped after he made fun of a shot in the water @foreplaypod<\/a><\/p>\n

pic.twitter.com\/QcDPwYD8sa<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 12, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What About Luke Potter?<\/h2>\n

Luke Potter has gone on to apologize for what he said.\u00a0 \u201cLook, I just made a mistake, and I take ownership for it,\u201d Potter said.\u00a0 Taking full responsibility for the incident, he is looking at this with some introspection.\u00a0 He has apologized to not only McIlroy but also Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.<\/p>\n

Potter\u2019s college coach, John Fields, told Golf.com<\/a> it was an embarrassing moment for his program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith regards to our University of Texas program, I mean it\u2019s an embarrassing moment. It is particularly sensitive to me because our program is built on respect for the game, and I would tell you that we coach 18- to 22-year-olds on a normal basis and they don\u2019t always make the right call, and that\u2019s my responsibility as a coach and when they do make a mistake it\u2019s a learning moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep in mind that Potter made this remark to the current number 2 golfer in the world.\u00a0 All while he is looking to break out of the amateur sphere and into the professional.\u00a0 This will not bode well for him in the near future.<\/p>\n

Fan Reaction To McIlroy\u2019s Outburst<\/h2>\n

During his run and eventual wining at the Players Championship<\/a>, some fans teased McIlroy by asking him to take their phone.\u00a0 Fans are calling his reaction to the initial heckling \u201csoft\u201d, and that he needs thicker skin.\u00a0 He initially tried to put it behind him, but being confronted by it constantly, he quickly found out he couldn\u2019t. This is not the first time this year he had a reaction to heckling.\u00a0 Earlier he snapped at someone who criticized his caddie<\/a> at Torrey Pines.<\/p>\n

Luke Potter’s comment about McIlroy’s performance was very disrespectful, but he has realized that.\u00a0 It is clear that despite it being nearly fourteen years since the 2011 Masters, McIlroy’s performance there is still a bit of a sore spot.\u00a0 Despite his wins since, the event still weighs heavy on him.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Corey Perrine\/Florida Times-Union \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, March 11th, during practice rounds in the leadup for the Players Championship, Rory McIlroy had an encounter with another golfer.\u00a0 During this practice round, McIlroy shot a ball into the water.\u00a0 Standing nearby was an amateur golfer, Luke Potter, who remarked:\u00a0\u201cJust like the 2011 Masters\u201d This is in reference to an event in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4860,"featured_media":433729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[299,34,300],"class_list":["post-433725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-luke-potter","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-tpc-sawgrass"],"modified_by":"yobodev","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4860"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}