The 'horrific' £5k watch with a diamond bezel that Rory McIlroy spent his first paycheque on but now regrets buying
The Irish golfing legend has scooped millions during an illustrious career which has seen him become a five-time major winner and a household name in the world of sport.
McIlroy shot onto the scene some 18 years ago, earning himself a spot on the PGA Tour at the age of just 18 in 2007.
He soon came into some huge winnings thanks to his exploits on courses across the DP World Tour, winning $20,520 for a T-42 finish at the British Masters, $286,769 at the Alred Dunhill Cup and another $56,425 at the Madrid Open.
But only now has McIlroy revealed that he spent his first earnings on what he described as 'the worst purchase ever' - a diamond encrusted watch.
Speaking ahead of this weekend's BMW Championship, he told reporters: 'I only had a debit card at the time and I checked my balance.
'I was like "Holy", I went straight to the jeweller.'
When asked if he remembers what he spent the money on, McIlroy chuckled: 'Yes, a watch with diamonds around it. It was horrific.
'I can't believe it, it was like the worst purchase ever. It was so bad!
'It's not the make and model that I'm sponsored by now, so I'm not going to say it!'
But after hearing McIlory's admission, curious fans began investigating what exactly the 'horrific' watch was.
Instagram user @golfprojects was the first to identify the glitzy wristwear, claiming the golfer splashed out his earnings on a 2007 Breitling Chronomat Evolution featuring a diamond bezel and a MOP dial.
Indeed, pictures of McIlroy from the 2009 Dubai Desert Classic show him sporting what supporters believe is the watch, and it's just as eye-catching as he described.
Elsewhere in the press conference, McIlroy made headlines as he shot down the idea of captaining Team Europe in the upcoming Ryder Cup.
As one of Europe's most decorated players, he had often been tipped as a natural leader in waiting. Since making his debut in 2010, McIlroy has been part of five victorious European teams.
He however revealed that he has turned down an offer to captain the team at Bethpage Black in September.
'No, I've been asked to do that, and I've turned it down,' he said.
'The idea of me being a playing captain sometime soon came up, and I shot it down straight away.' When asked why, McIlroy replied: 'Because I don't think you can do it.'
The Northern Irishman explained that the modern Ryder Cup captain's role has expanded far beyond what fans see during the three days of competition.
'It's just the commitments that a captain has that week,' he added. 'You think about the extra media a captain has to do, you think about the extra meetings the captains have to do with the vice-captains, with the PGA of America, preparing your speech for the opening ceremony… there's a lot of things that people don't see that the captain does, especially now that the Ryder Cup has become so big.
'If you'd have said it 20 years ago, I'd say, yeah, it was probably possible,' he continued. 'But now with how big of a spectacle it is and everything that's on the line, I think it would be a very difficult position to be in.'
The 2014 Open champion also stressed the practical limitations such a role would impose on his playing schedule across the weekend.
'Then [on the playing side] the captain isn't going to be on the course all day, so really the captain's only going to be able to play one session on Friday and one session on Saturday,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
42 minutes ago
- Reuters
Akshay Bhatia sinks hole-in-one at BMW Championship
August 16 - Akshay Bhatia recorded his first hole-in-one on the PGA Tour on Saturday during the third round of the BMW Championship in Owings Mills, Md. Riding the momentum of a birdie at No. 16, Bhatia used a 5-iron off the tee of the 227-yard 17th hole at Caves Valley Golf Club. The shot landed just short of the pin and rolled into the cup. Bhatia, 23, shot a 4-under-par 66 and is at even-par 210 through three rounds of the tournament. A two-time winner on the PGA Tour, Bhatia entered the tournament at No. 29 in the FedEx Cup standings and needs to be at least No. 30 or better in order to advance to next week's Tour Championship at Atlanta. --Field Level Media
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘It's nearly come full circle': Charlestown proud of Gallagher connection as Oasis come to Ireland
Emigration ripped the heart out of Charlestown: generations of young people took the boat to England and left behind derelict homes and shuttered shops, a hollowing chronicled in a landmark 1968 book, The Death of an Irish Town. Some returned to this corner of County Mayo for summer holidays – with children who were growing up with English accents and city ways – before vanishing back across the Irish Sea and leaving Charlestown to its decay. For those who stayed, this melancholy history may be a reason to look back in anger, but this week at least brings a measure of consolation – and pride – in the form of Oasis. Liam and Noel Gallagher will perform in Dublin this weekend and in the process are expected to remind Ireland, and global fans, that they are part of the Irish diaspora and that Charlestown is akin to a spiritual home. 'We're very, very proud of our association with the boys,' said John Casey, a renowned Gaelic footballer and resident who has befriended the Gallagher brothers. 'They were frequent visitors here before and after fame found its way with them.' The musicians were born in and grew up in Manchester but their mother, Peggy, used to drag them 'by the ear' to spend summer holidays with her relatives in Mayo, Noel recalled in a 1996 RTÉ interview. 'We had never seen the likes of nettles, fields and stacks of hay and all that, so she was determined to give us a bit of Irish culture, and it was a bit of a culture shock but we grew to love it and we still do.' According to lore, the young visitors assured sceptical locals that one day they would be famous. After becoming emblems of Cool Britannia in the mid-1990s they continued to visit their grandmother Margaret Sweeney, until she died in 2000, to socialise in pubs and, in the case of Liam, go for runs and hikes, including up Croagh Patrick, a Catholic pilgrimage site. 'It was cloudy, we couldn't see much, but he loved it,' said Casey, who accompanied the singer up the peak. When either brother entered a pub, word sometimes spread and drew busloads of fans from around the area, said Casey. 'It was my first experience of craziness. But mostly we tried to let them be, to not let them be bugged or bothered.' Charlestown mourned when Oasis broke up in 2009 and it celebrated last year's announcement of a reunion tour, which moves to Dublin's Croke Park stadium this Saturday and Sunday. 'There were a lot of relieved human beings around here when we heard they were rekindling things,' Casey said. Over the years the Gallaghers were photographed in pubs, and somebody uploaded a video of Liam joining a traditional music session at his local, JJ Finan's, but what won over the locals was a low-key normality at odds with the brothers' hell-raising image in England. 'There was no guitar-smashing and they always made time to chat to staff,' said Donal Healy, a marketing manager for Ireland West airport, also known as Knock, just outside Charlestown. Healy's journalist uncle John Healy wrote the book The Death of an Irish Town, also known as No One Shouted Stop!, that chronicled his native town's calamitous decline. That decline was part of a wider phenomenon across rural Ireland, but the local and national population has rebounded since the economy took off in the mid-1990s. The title paraphrases an interviewee in the book who said that no part of Irish society stood up to say that mass emigration was not inevitable. The poverty of the 1960s that drove a teenage Peggy Sweeney to seek work in Manchester – where she married another Irish emigrant, Tommy Gallagher – is no more, said Donal Healy. 'For Charlestown it's nearly come full circle, the fact that we have this connection with the family. We're in the news for the right reason.' Excitement is growing as the concerts approach. Radio stations fill their airwaves with Oasis songs and speculation about whether the brothers will make a surprise visit to the town. A football team sang Oasis hits in the town square and a cafe put 'Oasis soup' on the menu with the tagline 'you get a roll with it' – a reference to their 1995 hit. 'People are coming to the town just because of the connection,' said Karena Finn, who showed a photograph of Liam with his son during a visit to her family's pub, Johnny's Bar, several years ago. A customer named Anne, an emigrant back in Ireland on holiday, lauded the Gallaghers for nourishing their ties to Ireland. 'For all the faults they might have,' she said, 'they never forgot their roots.'
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Connacht power past Ulster in the second period
Irish Women's Interprovincial Championship, Dexcom StadiumConnacht 12 (0)Tries: Oviawe, Maher. Con: Nic DhonnachaUlster 7 (7)Try: Sheerin. Con: SheerinYellow card: Barr (36)A dominant second half performance saw Connacht secure victory in the Women's Interprovincial Championship against Ulster in win came at a cost, with Emer O'Dowd's side losing half-back pair Kayla Waldron and Grainne Moran to second half injuries but they absorbed those blows to began brightly but were unable to gain any traction in the second period as their half-time advantage was overturned by a pair of Connacht tries in the space of six minutes as their wait for a win continues following last week's defeat to made a great start in Galway as early pressure eventually led to Siobhan Sheerin bursting through to score before adding the conversion with eight minutes they couldn't build upon this as Connacht stood up to some follow-up turned up the heat late in the half with Ulster losing vice-captain Brenda Barr to the sin bin but they couldn't capitalise as Ulster retained their 7-0 advantage at the hosts had numerical advantage for the first six minutes of the second half and they laid siege to the Ulster line, but the visitors held initially firm as Barr was held up for over 15 minutes as Connacht's Waldron was stretchered off with what appeared to be a leg injury, but the fly-half gave a thumbs up on her way off the pitch as her team maintained the pressure when the game Connacht camped on the Ulster line, they finally breached the defence with replacement Faith Oviawe crossing and Éabha Nic Dhonnacha converted to level the game in the 55th was with the hosts as a downfield kick had them back inside the 22 and after further pressure, Roisin Maher drove over for the lead hosts were dealt a further injury blow with scrum-half Moran also stretchered off, but they again absorbed this hit to see out the game and bounce back from last week's defeat to Clara Barrett, Emily Foley, Orla Dixon, Éabha Nic Dhonnacha (capt), Hannah Clarke, Kayla Waldron, Grainne Moran; Hannah Coen, Lily Brady, Roisin Maher, Poppy Garvey, Grace Browne Moran, Beibhinn Gleeson, Ailish Quinn, Jemima Adams Stacy Hanley, Ellen Connolly, Hope Lowney, Faith Oviawe, Caoilfhionn Morrissey, Lesley Ring, Ava Ryder, Fódhla Ní Bhraoná Kate Farrell-McCabe, Lucy Thompson, Siohbán Sheerin, Tara O'Neill, Niamh Marley, Lauren Farrell McCabe, Georgia Boyce; Sarah Roberts, Maebh Clenaghan, Ava Fannin, Lauren Darley, Brenda Barr, Moya Hill, Ruby Starrett, India Daley (capt).Replacements: Cara McLean, Megan Simpson, Sophie Barrett, Rebecca Beacom, Katie Hetherington, Sophie Meeke, Kelly McCormill, Stacey Sloan.
