Rory McIlory doesn’t want to talk about his “f–king ripped shirt.”
After a somber sixth-place finish at the DP World Tour Championship last week — where he blew a 54-hole lead after shooting even-par 72 in the final round — McIlory was pictured in the media center with his shirt ripped apart across his chest.
On Wednesday, he spoke to the media for the first time since the meltdown, and snapped back at a reporter who mentioned his shirt.
“Nice shirt, it’s in one piece,” the reporter said ahead of the Hero World Challenge in Nassau, Bahamas — to which McIlroy replied, “It is. It’s another joke you tried to make that’s not that funny.”
Another reporter asked, “Rory, how long did it take to rip the shirt and when was the last time you did that before Dubai?”
The 19-time PGA Tour winner said, “It didn’t take — I mean, I pulled on my collar and it ripped. I don’t know if I’ve ever done it before.”
McIlroy seemed frustrated by the time he was hit with another question on the subject.
“I went to the pro shop, bought a new one, threw that one in the trash,” he said.
“I mean, this f—king ripped shirt, Jesus.”
McIlroy was later asked to recall what went wrong with his game in Dubai that led to him taking his frustrations out on his shirt.
“What I was angry about was how I reacted to the bad break, not the bad break or the fact I didn’t win the golf tournament, because Collin [Morikawa] played great,” McIlroy said of an approach shot that hit the pin and wildly deflected off the green and into a bunker.
“It was just my reaction to that bad break that made me angry because I basically lost my head after that and made a bogey on 16.”
McIlroy, though, said he’s now “more sure” of what he’s doing on the course.
“Now I feel like I’ve regained like what my philosophy is and what my – basically the sort of golf that I want to play.”
McIlroy is playing this week’s Hero Challenge, hosted by Tiger Woods, for the first time since 2013. He enters the tournament following a win at the CJ Cup in Las Vegas last month.