Rory McIlroy meets his match in young fan wearing green jacket
Rory McIlroy showed his class with a funny message for a young fan at the Canadian Open.
The young man was adorned in a green jacket quite similar to the one the Holywood native picked up at this year's Masters tournament in Augusta.
The Grand Slam winner, having spotted the attire, walked over to the kid and said "It took me a little longer to get one of those," before having a chat with him.
It was somewhat out of step with the recent radio silence he has displayed in previous tournaments, stemming from a leak from his camp over a driver failure.
He said: "I was a little p***** off because I knew that Scottie's [Scheffler] driver had failed on Monday, but my name was the one that was leaked.
"It was supposed to stay confidential. Two members of the media were the ones that leaked it.
"Again, I didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted, either. I'm trying to protect Scottie - I don't want to mention his name. I'm trying to protect TaylorMade. I'm trying to protect the USGA, PGA of America, myself.
"I just didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted at the time. With Scottie's stuff, that's not my information to share.
"I knew that that had happened, but that's not on me to share that, and I felt that process is supposed to be kept confidential, and it wasn't for whatever reason. That's why I was pretty annoyed at that."
The Canadian Open is largely seen as a warm-up for next week's US Open, with many players looking to dial in their game for the third major of the season.
McIlroy will be hoping to reclaim his 2019 and 2022 titles at TPC Toronto to lead him into the US Open in good stead, and if the three-year cycle continues, the omens are good for him.
He tees off at 12:40PM Irish time in the first round on Thursday.
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