Story Behind Clover Leaf on Rory McIlroy’s Hat at the Paris Olympics Uncovered

Things might shine bright for Rory McIlroy after so many backlogs. At the 2024 Olympics in Paris halfway through the ultimate round, he is tied for a T3 with Hideki Matsuyama, just one stroke away from Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood (T1). While one might call it superstition, could it be a change in his attire that truly brought him luck?

While McIlroy always states that he does not prefer wearing hats, because his head is too small, at the Le Golf National, we saw him sporting a white hat with a green symbol. While it might look like a clover leaf, it is a shamrock. The Irish and Irish diaspora love the shamrock. Anyone celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day will see people of Ireland having the symbol on their clothes or seen objects.

The shamrock, similar to the four-leaf clover, has three leaves. This holds the holy trinity – where God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are three persons in one God. Significantly, Saint Patrick used the shamrock as a metaphor. Although he is known as the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick was born someplace in Roman Britain (the exact location is unknown). He arrived in Ireland as a slave captured by the pirates for six years.

During his asylum, he converted himself into Christianity and left Ireland to study in Britain and France. He came back to Ireland to develop a missionary and wanted to convert and baptize all the pagan Irish into Christianity. It was during this process that he used the Shamrock. Rory McIlroy, representing Ireland, has the Shamrock displaying his culture in Paris.

However, more often than not, he prefers not to wear a hat at all! Here’s why.

Rory McIlroy thinks his head is too small

When Rory McIlroy plays on the PGA Tour, he is always seen wearing a Nike Hat. That is his apparel sponsor and he has the hat custom made to fit his head. He didn’t wear a hat at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo because the one from Ireland didn’t fit. “My head is so small that I have to get Nike to make me custom hats, so whenever I’m in a team event and the hats aren’t custom, they’re all too big,” he said in Tokyo three years ago.

Rory McIlroy prefers not wearing a hat in any event, where Nike is not making them for him. Be it the Ryder Cup or the Olympics, he prefers to enter the greens hassle-free to focus completely on his game!

Do you think hats are an important accessory while playing golf? Let us know in the comments section below!