Golf writer reveals all about behind-the-scenes X-rated bust-up with Rory McIlroy

Alan Shipnuck has recalled the moment that Rory McIlroy told him to ‘f*** off’ at the 2025 US Open.

McIlroy arrived at the Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania just two months after his iconic and long-awaited triumph at The Masters.

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The Northern Irishman finished joint-19th following a dismal start to his round on day two of the US Open, in which he ended on two over.

McIlroy double bogeyed the opening hole, which may well have come from a distraction on the driving range moments beforehand.

Shipnuck, who wrote ‘Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf’s Most Human Superstar’, joined the William Hill Sports Book Club on talkSPORT to discuss his new publication.

Host Adrian Durham claimed the book ‘got off to a shaky start’ as he was responsible for McIlroy’s double bogey on hole one at Oakmont.

Ror blimey

“I’ve covered Rory his entire career,” Shipnuck explained. “I’ve been there for all the heartaches and all the triumphs… it’s just great content. The guy chooses the scenery, he lives big, his wins and losses are unforgettable.

“But, like any long-term relationship, we’ve had our ups and downs, Rory and I, so when I told him I was doing this book, he was a little less than thrilled because Rory loves to have control over everything in his life, and he knew he would have no such control over this book.

“So, what you’re alluding to is at the US Open at Oakmont last summer on Friday, the second round, I was standing on the driving range, just sort of whispering to Rory’s manager, Sean O’Flaherty.

“We’ve had open lines of communication throughout the process of doing the book, and Rory turned around and saw me, and he was in a weird headspace.

“We all kind of saw it after The Masters, where he had this existential crisis. He’d been to the mountaintop and now he was trying to figure out what was going to come next.

“So, he saw me, and he very impolitely asked me to leave the driving range. One of the words started with ‘f’ and ended with ‘k’, and there were two letters in between.

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“And so, that was an uncomfortable moment. There was a packed grandstand behind me with about a thousand people, there were cameras everywhere, so I did as I was asked and I did wander off.”

Durham then asked about how that impacted him, but Shipnuck insisted: “Well, that’s life in the big leagues.

“If you’re a reporter and you do the job long enough, and you do it a certain way, every now and then the players, the athletes are going to be displeased.”

He added: “It wasn’t comfortable to have the reigning Masters champion dropping f-bombs on me.

“But I actually said this to his manager O’Flaherty, I said, ‘Despite the way that Rory treated me, this is a very feel-good book, it’s an uplifting tale’.

“I have always had a lot of admiration for Rory, and the way he’s carried himself, so I said, ‘I’m just going to treat that as an aberration’, I really didn’t let it affect anything in the creation of the book.

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“When Rory, as you said, went out right after that confrontation and made a double bogey at Oakmont, I allowed myself the tiniest bit of pleasure. But as a consummate professional, to not leak into my pros.”

Despite the tense moment between him and McIlroy, Shipnuck was on hand to reveal that the golfing superstar was a fan of his work.

They met after the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February where McIlroy, who later won back-to-back Masters titles, finished joint-14th.

Shipnuck remarked: “I bumped into Rory in the parking lot on the Sunday night, total happenstance after the tournament was over.

“He said, ‘Thanks for the book. I started reading it and it made me laugh, and I liked it’.

“So, I think I’m in a good place with Rory and on a human level, that’s nice. but again, I didn’t write the book for him so if he hated it, I probably would have been OK with it as well.”