During a two-day trip to Augusta National last week to play golf with his dad, Rory McIlroy decided to get in some work at the gym to start his day, and figured he’d get in and get out before anyone else showed up.
Then seven Super Bowl rings showed up and the world’s top-ranked golfer knew it was time to call it a workout.
“Friday morning, I got in the gym about 6,” ESPN’s Bob Harig quoted McIlroy as saying Wednesday after his pro-am at the Bay Hill Club. “[Tom] Brady walked in at 6:15, and the Mannings [Peyton and Eli] walked in at 6:30. That was my time to leave.”
McIlroy is in Orlando, Fla., this weekend to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the first time. According to Harig, McIlroy has “unlimited access” to Augusta National, site of next month’s Masters. The quarterbacks were all there as guests of other AG members.
“I was just surprised he [Brady] was in there; the Mannings, too. It’s their offseason. It was to see all those guys in the gym before their season starts. They’re so dedicated and committed to what they do, especially those two guys, Peyton and Tom, they’re both in their mid-30s and they want to prolong their careers as much as they can.
“To see them putting so much into it even after 15 successful years as a career and they’re still doing it — it was great for me to see, it was inspirational in some ways. … It was just nice to be in that little world for a couple of days and experience it.”
The timing of the meeting wasn’t perhaps entirely coincidence. Brady was also at Augusta that day because he was playing a round later in the day.