Watch: Rory McIlroy hits second ball while playing approach shot in wild sequence at British Open

(Editor's note: Click to see our live updates of the third round from Royal Portrush.)

That's something you don't see every day.

Let's set the scene: Fore right for world No. 2 Rory McIlroy on the 11th hole at Royal Portrush on Saturday during the third round of the 2025 Open Championship. His ball landed in an area where fans have traversed the Northern Irish countryside all week watching the best players in the world, and was seemingly sitting up, giving McIlroy a shot at the green.

McIlroy stepped in to hit his second shot, and he took a lash at his ball, sending it into the sky. And from his divot, another ball emerged and came to rest between his feet. Confused, McIlroy picked it up in disbelief, as were the commentators and spectators surrounding McIlroy in the thicket.

The ball, a Titleist 4 as our Adam Schupak found out after a fan retrieved it from the bush McIlroy tossed it into, came out of a buried lie in the divot from McIlroy's second shot.

McIlroy made bogey on the hole, his first of the day after making three birdies in his first four holes, but he bounced back with an eagle on the par-5 12th to move to 7 under overall and five behind Scottie Scheffler.