Even the rich are superstitious. "Thirteen's an unlucky number, I want you to have 14 clubs," quipped billionaire businessman Donald Trump – owner of the Doral resort – on returning the most famous three-iron in golf to world number one Rory McIlroy ahead of the final round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship on Sunday.
The club – thrown into the lake in a fit of pique by McIlroy on Friday – was recovered by a scuba diver and presented to the player on the range prior to his closing round.
“Is it dry?” joked McIlroy, who put the club back into his bag but said he would return it to Trump on finishing so that it could raise money for a charitable cause.
Trump said: “I’ll either auction it for charity or trophy case it at Doral, putting it on a beautiful mount. People really want that, it was such a big thing, all over television.”
The likelihood is that the club will be framed and mounted with Trump making a donation to charity. “I would give a lot of money to charity. I would love to mount it, it really represents something. It was the biggest sports story for two days, first the throw and then the scuba diver.”
He wasn’t critical of McIlroy throwing the club into the lake, claiming it demonstrated a “human” side to the golfer.
“He is a great star, a great athlete, a great player and anything he does is news. It is not like him (to throw clubs) but again he did it with great style and I said (to McIlroy) ‘it was a great thing that you did it, because it shows a certain human touch’.”
