You don’t have to spend long in the Australian sandbelt to learn about the variety of exotic objects that can lead to your eventual demise.
At one local golf course, Peninsula Kingswood, the employees delight in terrifying foreign visitors with a reminder: Three of the deadliest snakes in the world live in the Melbourne region, and all three have been spotted on the golf course. Players are encouraged to enter the rough by thumping their 9-iron against the turf, warning any would-be assailants of their whereabouts. The throughline at Peninsula Kingswood and at the remainder of the spectacular golf elsewhere in Oz is clear: Expect the unexpected.
This was a lesson Rory McIlroy learned the hard way on Saturday morning at the Australian Open. McIlroy, you might have heard, is making his grand debut in the Sandbelt at Royal Melbourne, host site of this week’s event (and GOLF’s No. 7-ranked course in the world).
The reigning Masters champ has been wowed by the golf culture in Oz, by the spine-tingling creativity required of golf on the jagged edges of the sandbelt, and by the unique shot variety of the golf. He has also, evidently, been wowed by the strange stew of unusual items that can derail a round of golf on the sandbelt. Like, for example, a banana peel.
On the second hole on Saturday morning at Royal Melbourne, McIlroy missed his drive well right of the fairway. So far right, in fact, that his ball wound up in a large clump of high grass. And resting in the high grass, right next to his golf ball? Well, the kind of adversary that might only arrive in Oz: A banana peel.
After a lengthy conversation with his caddie, Harry Diamond, and a brief consideration about the merits of a drop, McIlroy elected for a pitch-out. But when he swung at this ball he managed only a half-connection. He punched out again on his third shot, and needed three more strokes to land his ball in the hole. He walked away from the second with a double-bogey 6, his worst hole of the week.
“I know, it was sorta a double-whammy,” McIlroy said later. “It was in that little tuft of long grass and then the banana-skin over it, but I shouldn’t have been there in the first place, it was a terrible tee shot.”
Thankfully, the bad vibes didn’t continue much longer for McIlroy. He made just one bogey the rest of the way on Saturday — a four on the gnarly par-3 7th — to six birdies. He enters Sunday’s final round (which, due to the time change, will air in the United States on Saturday evening) at 5 under for the tournament, good for a tie for 24th.
And, perhaps, with a newfound appreciation for the unexpected. Which, as it turns out, is everywhere down under.