To say it lightly, Rory McIlroy does not struggle to find a tee time.
The four-time major champ remains one of golf’s most jocular figures — a no-doubt superstar with impressive normal-guy bonafides. Shy of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, no golfer alive would have a better ratio of pro shop visits to tee time invitations.
For these reasons, we rarely bother to ask professional golfers where they play their golf. Somewhere in Jupiter, Fla., we assume, and maybe some other club close to home. Everywhere else, well, they’re just a phone call away from figuring it out.
Thankfully, the DP World Tour’s content team has a deep well of curiosity and a strong supply of access — two things that lead to videos like the one that debuted on the tour’s feeds this weekend at the DP World Tour Championship. The video, taken from a short interview with McIlroy (who would go on to win the event on Sunday), provides a thrilling answer to an under-asked question: How many memberships do you have?
“Got to go country by country here,” McIlroy says in the video with a grin.
“So can I include Seminole because I pay for that for my dad?” he says again with a laugh, referencing his father Gerry’s membership at the famed Seminole Golf Club, where both McIlroys are club fixtures.
Eventually, McIlroy finished his count and reached a number.
“Fifteen?”
As for his preferred membership, McIlroy answers with the R&A, which oversees the eponymous Old Course at St. Andrews.
“My favorite is the R&A,” he says. “I think that’s probably my favorite.”
Fifteen memberships, including the R&A? Not too bad for one of the most recognizable golfers alive.
As McIlroy sails off into a well-earned offseason, the bigger question remains: How many will he have the time to visit?