By Simon Evans
MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) - Rory McIlroy was reunited with his spectacularly discarded three-iron on Sunday when Donald Trump handed the club back to the world number one at Trump National Doral.
A frustrated McIlroy hurled the iron into a pond on Friday after his second shot at the par-five eighth found water. It was recovered on Saturday by a scuba diver.
Trump organised a presentation of the club back to McIlroy at the practice range before the Northern Irishman teed off in the final round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship, where he was 10 shots off the lead.
The real estate magnate said McIlroy would return the iron after the round and that he planned to either frame the iron for display at the club or auction it off for charity. Trump seemed to be delighted that the incident occurred on his Blue Monster course and said he was leaning towards framing the club.
"It was a great thing that he did it because it showed a certain human touch," said Trump, "He's a fantastic person and he was very thankful."
"I give a lot of money to charity. I would love to mount it because I think it really represented something. It was the biggest sports story for two days."