Rory McIlroy almost misses his Ryder Cup tee time

Maybe Rory McIlroy needs to invest in a better alarm clock. Or just hire a personal time assistant.

The world’s top-ranked golfer arrived at Medinah barely 10 minutes before his scheduled tee time against Keegan Bradley, the third match of the day at the Ryder Cup. NBC reported that McIlroy got his time zones mixed up, and thought he was teeing off an hour later than he actually was. McIlroy got a police escort to the course — a necessity given the traffic around Medinah this morning — and was in the parking lot with hardly any time to spare before his 11:25 a.m. tee time.

McIlroy got to the tee just in time — to the cheers of a crowd that was clued in to the situation — took several practice swings (no time for the range), and missed the fairway, off to the right. His approach out of the rough came up short, but he almost holed out his chip, settling for a tap-in par and a halve with Bradley.

“We didn’t have that in mind,” European captain Jose Maria Olazabal said. “All of a sudden we realized that Rory was not here. We started to look for him and nobody knew.”

McIlroy famously overslept during a nap before the final round of the PGA Championship this year, arriving at Kiawah Island a mere 30 minutes before his tee time. That worked out pretty well for the Northern Irishman, as he shot a 6-under 66 to win his second major by eight strokes.