(MEDIA GENERAL) – Golf is full of iconic moments: both in the professional ranks and the personal ones by duffers across the world. A man named Dave Johnson has his iconic moment, and it was captured on camera by one of the world’s best, Rory McIlroy.
On Thursday, Team Europe members Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, Andy Sullivan and McIlroy were playing a practice match at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, in preparation for the upcoming 2016 Ryder Cup, which kicks off Friday. After missing a putt, Sullivan lined up to try again to get a better read for the green.
“Someone in the crowd yelled, ‘I could have made that,’ Stenson told the BBC. “So we let him have a go.”
That someone in the crowd was Johnson, who took Stenson up on the offer. Rose upped the ante by placing a $100 bill next to the ball as a prize for a successful putt. He sank it.
Rose added, “The boys were cupping out, missing it low and this guy just ripped it into the middle. Fair play to him and he celebrated in style. … It’s fun. We are doing what we should be doing out here, having fun. We are preparing, we are focusing, but you have to enjoy it.
The 2016 Ryder Cup kicks off Friday morning and wraps up Sunday afternoon. Friday’s coverage will be on Golf Channel, and Saturday and Sunday’s coverage will air on NBC. Team Europe has won the biennial tournament six of the last seven times.