World No. 1 Rory McIlroy got the scare of his golfing life in a near disastrous time zone mix-up for the red hot European Team player.

McIlroy was still at his Chicago hotel when he got a phone call wondering he was not at the Medinah course in readiness for his showdown against USA rival, Keegan Bradley.

World No. 1 Rory McIlroy finds time to much on an energy bar after a time zone mix up could have resulted in him being disqualified from the Ryder Cup. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)

“I was just casually walking out of my hotel room and got a phone call saying you’ve got 25 minutes until you tee off,” revealed McIlroy.”I’ve never been so worried driving to a golf course before in my life.

“Luckily there was a State Trooper outside who kind of gave me the escort to here, and if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have got here in time.

“So I just ran into the clubhouse, got my shoes on and picked it up on the first tee. 

“I managed to calm down as soon as I got onto the golf course.

“Thankfully, my warm-up sessions are not long.  I usually spend about 40 minutes warming up.  I only warmed up for about 25 minutes before I won the PGA earlier this year.  It doesn’t really matter as I just tried to get as loose as I could, but then I was pretty loose anyway.

“It was probably a really good thing I didn’t have to think about it too much.”

McIlroy put the shock aside to eventually hand the unbeaten Bradley his only defeat of the Ryder Cup in defeating the American 2 & 1 and continuing a tsunami of blue victories for the European Team that eventually led the Jose Maria Olazabal’s team winning the 39th Ryder Cup.

“There was a lot of positivity in there, especially the way we finished,” said McIlroy.

“Winning those two points was crucial.  We’ve tried to carry that momentum into today, and we’ve sort of done that.  But we need to go out and support the boys now in the middle of the order and see if we can get them home, as well.”