Pro golfer Rory McIlroy didn’t take kindly to a heckler attempting to disrupt his play during his final PGA Championship round over the weekend.
After a poor shot sent his ball into a bunker at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 17, McIlroy, 37, appeared to turn to a fan and tell them to, “shut the f*** up,” according to video circulating on social media.
The video then shows McIlroy seeming to point to someone with his club, presumably to have security remove the unruly spectator.
McIlroy finished the tournament tied for 7th place, five strokes behind the winner, Aaron Rai. He didn’t address the viral incident after his round, but admitted he wished he could have a few shots back.
“I think not birdieing the two par-5s and making the bogey at the drivable par-4 13th,” he told reporters. “To me, I felt like I played the golf I needed to play the rest of the way. If I birdied the two par-5s and turned that 5 into a 3 on 13, the day looks very different.”
While most of golf’s big names will be at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson tournament in Texas this week, McIlroy said he will sit it out.
“I’m going to take a couple weeks off, and then Memorial will be my next one,” McIlroy said. The Memorial Tournament in Ohio gets underway on June 4.
The 2026 PGA Championship was far from the first time that McIlroy has dealt with hecklers on the course, but it typically happens at the Ryder Cup, where the rules regarding spectator behavior are much more lax.
During the 2025 Ryder Cup in September, fans heckled McIlroy consistently while he was competing for Europe, causing him to again tell someone in the crowd to “shut the f*** up.”
“I don’t mind them having a go at us. Like, that’s to be expected. I mean, that’s what an away Ryder Cup is,” McIlroy told reporters at the famed Bethpage golf course in Farmingdale, New York. “Whenever they are still doing it while you are over the ball and trying to hit your shot, that’s the tough thing.”
He added, “Look, when you play an away Ryder Cup it’s really really challenging. It’s not for me to say. People can be their own judge on if they take it too far or not. I’m just proud of us for being able to win with what we had to go through.”
