Inside Rory McIlroy’s $995 Uber ride — and how ‘Aquaman’ saved the day

The notification appeared on the Uber driver’s phone shortly before 7 on a Saturday evening earlier this month.

The South Florida pickup location — Trump National Golf Club Jupiter — was familiar to him not only because of the property’s famous owner but also because the driver had made pickups there on several previous occasions.

“The security is excellent,” he told me the other day by email. “When you enter, security drives in front of you, guiding you to your destination, and waits there until you leave.”

Less familiar to the driver was the unusual task at hand.

He wasn’t picking up a passenger in his 2024 Lincoln Navigator — he was collecting golf clubs, and not just any golf clubs. The cargo belonged to one of the world’s most accomplished golfers, four-time major winner Rory McIlroy.

If you follow golf news closely, you may already know the back story: A couple of weeks ago, on the eve of the fourth round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, McIlroy, who was then seven off the lead, had had a change of heart about the clubs in his bag. After playing the first three rounds at Bay Hill with TaylorMade’s latest driver and fairway woods, from the Qi35 line, he decided to switch back to his old woods, his Qi10s, for Sunday’s final round. Trouble was, his old gamers were in Jupiter, more than 150 miles down the Turnpike.

What to do? Yup, enter Uber.

The driver who took McIlroy’s delivery request lives in Palm Beach. In an interview conducted by email, he declined to provide his age but said he has neither a spouse nor children. He has been driving for Uber for about three and a half years and says he “dedicates” himself to the job. He isn’t a golfer or much of a golf fan — “I rarely have time due to work,” he said — but he had heard of McIlroy and understood the gravity of the mission. Here’s how the driver, who asked to be identified only by his nickname, “Aquaman,” recounted the pickup:

“I remember arriving at the property and being greeted by a very elegant and polite lady. She told me she urgently needed me to take some golf clubs to Orlando. She emphasized that it was very important and understood that it was a long trip at that hour, and she would really appreciate it. Right in front of me, she called Rory McIlroy and put him on the phone. He told me he would be waiting for the clubs, that he was very grateful, and asked me to let him know when I was arriving so he could be outside waiting for me. He also told me to drive carefully.”

High-level golfers (and some low-level ones, too) are fiercely loyal to and protective of their clubs, or some of their clubs, anyway. Jack Nicklaus used the same MacGregor 693 3-wood for nearly four decades, and Tiger Woods wielded the same Scotty Cameron putter for all but one of his 15 major wins. Equipment swaps happen all the time, of course — manufacturers prefer their pros to flaunt the newest models — but players don’t take bag turnover lightly. Finding new gamers can take days, weeks or even months of range, Trackman and truck work. In golf, as in life, breaking up can be hard to do, and sometimes, after moving on, players end up back with their old flames.

Aquaman, who earned his moniker for his resemblance to the superhero of the same name, loaded McIlroy’s clubs into his trunk — they were packed in a light blue camouflage travel case — climbed into the driver’s seat and pulled out of Trump Jupiter. He said he didn’t feel anxious or nervous. “I’m used to this,” he said. “I’ve had many celebrities in my car before. It seems I have good luck with that.”

News

His first stop was a Jupiter gas station where he filled up and bought a sandwich. He grabbed a Red Bull, too. He needed a jolt after having driven all day and with a nearly three-hour haul ahead of him. The commute was uneventful. As Aquaman neared Bay Hill, he called McIlroy, who answered and said, “I’m sitting outside waiting.”

“I turned my head, and that’s when I saw him,” Aquaman recalled. ”I got out of the car, and he approached me and greeted me. I opened the trunk and handed him the golf clubs. I gave him the clubs, he thanked me again, and he handed me a very generous tip. He told me to drive back carefully.”

That gratuity, McIlroy’s manager told Golfweek, was $330 on top of what was a $665 ride. Call it a cool grand all in.

McIlroy didn’t see immediate results from his new/old clubs — he shot an even-par 72 on Sunday and tied for 15th — but acknowledged he had returned to a setup “I’m comfortable with.”

The following week, at the Players Championship, McIlroy said of his gear experimentation: “Some years you vibe with a new piece of equipment a little easier. Like that Qi10 [driver] that I’m using that they brought out last year, it was like love at first sight. I was, like, this thing is amazing. I think when you feel like that about a golf club, it’s very hard to change into something else.”

With his old faithfuls back in the bag at Sawgrass, McIlroy McIlroy’ed. On an exacting setup and in challenging conditions, he opened with a five-under 67, shot two more rounds in the 60s and finished at 12 under for the week. That earned him a spot in a three-hole Monday playoff, where he dispatched J.J. Spaun with clinical efficiency.

No one is suggesting that having his old Qi10s back in his bag for one round at Bay Hill played a significant role in McIlroy’s win at Sawgrass. Still, playing one tournament round with them before the Players couldn’t have hurt the re-acclimation process. Whatever the impact, Aquaman delivered.

He said he has seen the headlines about his Orlando escapade and that he feels “lucky and happy” to have played a small part in getting McIlroy back on track. If Aquaman has any regrets, it was not snapping a photo with the world’s second-ranked golfer to commemorate the experience. “I was going to ask,” he said, “but I felt too shy.”

Ah, well. Aquaman still has one hell of a story.