SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A couple of days before the start of the WGC Match Play Championship in San Francisco, the no. 1 golfer in the world scored ringside seats tickets to watch the world’s two best boxers square off in the richest bout ever on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Rory McIlroy waited five years for the Mayweather-Pacquiao to happen. Back in 2009, he and his friend promised that would be near the ring to witness it.

“Our first Vegas fight, we went together. We always said if Pacquiao and Mayweather, we would go. It was little bit of a birthday present to myself as well. My birthday (Monday, when he turns 26) is in a couple of days’ time.”

“Luckily we’re somewhere close and hopefully I’m still part of this tournament at that time, but it just wasn’t an opportunity that I was going to miss,” he said.

Bad news is: He didn’t make it to fight. Good news: He’ll back at Harding Park at 6:45 a.m. Sunday to finish off his quarterfinal sudden death quarterfinal match against Paul Casey.

McIlroy will not disclose how much he paid for the tickets.

McIlroy was making good time after quickly dispatching Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama 6&5 in the round of 16. A private plane was waiting for him to depart SFO and head to Las Vagas.

But his second match of the day, the round of 8 against Casey, teed of at 4 p.m. not giving McIlroy any wiggle room. He needed to win or lose in record time.

The two played a close match through 18 holes and finished all square. McIlroy and Casey headed back to the signature 16th hole (converted from the final 18th hole) and began playing extra holes until the match was called for darkness.

McIlroy ended up handing over his prized seats to fellow Lee Westwood, who lost early Saturday afternoon in the round of 16 to Danny Willett.