We’re sitting in a room of his splendid home in Jupiter, Florida. Three hours have passed since we settled into our chairs and we’ve reached the first round of the 2022 Masters.
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PK: A week before you played in the JP McManus pro-am in Adare?
RM: Yeah.
PK: And got Covid?
RM: Yeah.
PK: I heard everyone had Covid there?
RM: (Laughs)
PK: Go on.
RM: Tiger needed a rest on Wednesday. We had played two days of golf at Adare and the plan was to play Ballybunion on Thursday. I woke up that morning feeling a bit achy but didn’t really think anything of it. JP gave us his chopper and we went down with Seán and Tiger’s manager, Rob [McNamara]. We got around fine, flew back to Adare for lunch and as I’m getting up from the table, I’m sore and stiff and super tired. I said to Erica, “I’m feeling a bit weird. I’m just going upstairs to lie down for a bit.” I slept for maybe two hours and the sweat was just pouring off me, then Erica took my temperature and it was sky high. I rang Tiger: “I’m not feeling so good here.” And he goes, “Oh, I feel okay.” But he texted me at 10 o’clock that night, chills, fever, and I’m like, ‘F*****g hell, I’ve just given Tiger Covid! This is horrendous!’ (laughs) So we both had Covid going into the Open.
PK: F**k!
RM: I had planned to go to St Andrews early but ended up quarantining at Adare, and it probably took me until the Sunday to start feeling better. If it had happened last year, with everything that was going on in my game, I would have been in a panic, but I was in a good place and thought, ‘I’ll be fine.’ On Tuesday night I went to the Champions Dinner and it was lovely. I was sitting there drinking water and they poured a glass of wine, a lovely 2005 Bordeaux, and I was like, ‘Ahh, I’ll just have a little sip,’ but I couldn’t taste it. The whole week of the Open I didn’t have any taste, and everything smelled like vinegar to me. Everything. It was really strange