‘F***ing hell, I’ve given Tiger Woods Covid’ – Rory McIlroy opens up on ‘horrendous’ fear he infected icon at The Open
GOLF star Rory McIlroy has spoken about the moment he thought he had given Tiger Woods Covid-19.
McIlroy revealed that the pair were suffering from Covid symptoms a week before The 150th Open at St Andrews started.
The Northern Irishman was staying at Adare Manor, Ireland with Woods after the JP McManus Pro-Am.
The tournament was played between the July 4-5, just over a week before The Open was due to start on July 14.
Woods was making his return to the Scottish course, but it was almost disrupted when McIlroy started to suffer from the symptoms of Covid.
McIlroy told The Independent: "Tiger needed a rest on Wednesday.
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"We had played two days of golf at Adare [Manor] and the plan was to play Ballybunion on Thursday.
"I woke up that morning feeling a bit achy but didn't really think anything of it.
"JP [McManus] gave us his chopper and we went down with Sean and Tiger's manager, Rob [McNamara].
"We got around fine, flew back to Adare for lunch, and as I'm getting up from the table, I'm sore and stiff and super tired.
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"I said to Erica, 'I'm feeling a bit weird. I'm just going upstairs to lie down for a bit.'
"I slept for maybe two hours and the sweat was just pouring off me, then Erica took my temperature and it was sky high.
"I rang Tiger: 'I'm not feeling so good here.' And he goes, 'Oh, I feel okay.'
"But he texted me at 10 o'clock that night, chills, fever, and I'm like, 'F---ing hell, I've just given Tiger Covid! This is horrendous!' (laughs) So we both had Covid going into The Open."
Luckily for the 33-year-old, Woods was still able to play at the tournament.
However, it was not the brilliant comeback that people had hoped for as the American ended his participation after two rounds.
He was given an ovation from the crowd as he made his way up the St Andrews 18th hole for perhaps the last time in his career.