Rory McIlroy Accidentally Ghosted Tiger Woods' Heartfelt Text Message Following U.S. Open Collapse

Rory McIlroy's cell phone was flooded with so many text messages following his brutal collapse in the U.S. Open that he elected to change his number. While it may have been a smart play on his behalf, the move caused him to miss a nicely-worded message from Tiger Woods.

During their pre-tournament press conferences ahead of this week's Open Championship, Woods was the first to discuss the text he shot Rory's way after McIlroy bogeyed two of his final three holes to miss out on a playoff at Pinehurst by a shot.

Wood revealed that he waited a week before sending McIlroy the message not knowing that it was being sent to nowhere.

"I just sent him a nice text," he revealed. "That was it. I waited a week before I sent it. I wanted to let it calm down. I know he was being besieged by a lot of different things going on, and I just let it cool down. Then I sent him a nice text, and that’s it."

"Just basically, ‘I’m your friend.’ I know this is a difficult moment. We’ve all been there as champions. We all lose. Unfortunately, it just happened, and the raw emotion of it, it’s still there, and it’s going to be there for, I’m sure, some time," Woods said when asked to describe the message that was never delivered. "The faster he’s able to get back on a horse and get back into contention, like he did last week, the better it is for him."

Tiger Woods shot Rory McIlroy a text message after his U.S. Open collapse only to get ghosted. John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Woods talking about the text message with the media wasn't the first McIlroy was hearing of it. It came up in conversation when the two spoke to one another at Royal Troon on Tuesday, which it's safe to assume Tiger threw a friendly jab Rory's direction about how he never received even the easiest of thank yous in reply.

"Full disclosure, I changed my number two days after the US Open, so I didn’t get it until he told me about it today," laughed McIlroy. "I was like, ‘Oh, thanks very much.’ So I blanked Tiger Woods, which is probably not a good thing."

"Tiger has been nothing but incredible to me over the course of my career in the good moments and the bad," he revealed. "He sent me an incredible message after St Andrews in 2022," McIlroy continued.

"I met Tiger when I was 15 years old, and I’ve built up a great relationship with him, his whole family. He really enjoys spending time with my mum and dad as well. It means a lot. It means a lot that he reached out. Actually, it means a lot that he waited a few days to reach out, which if he hadn’t have waited that long, I probably would have got it."

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Rumors have been swirling throughout the year that Woods and McIlroy have moved in opposite directions with Rory sharing the opinion that LIV Golf and its players deserve some leniency, while Woods has continued to wave the PGA Tour and anti-LIV flag stronger than anyone.

Even with those differences, it's clear the two have the utmost respect for one another.