Rory McIlroy Teases Charles Barkley About His Weight on Live Broadcast

Pro golfer Rory McIlroy had Charles Barkley requesting a mulligan after asking a question about McIlroy’s eating habits on the course. 

McIlroy, 35, teamed up with Scottie Scheffler to battle Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in The Showdown, an 18-hole exhibition match that aired live on TNT and TBS from Las Vegas’ Shadow Creek Golf Club. 

Before the match began, Barkley, 61, asked McIlroy a question from the studio as the Irish golf star walked down the fairway. 

“I noticed you’re eating a snack now,” Barkley said. “How much in a regular round do you eat?”

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Without hesitation, McIlroy answered, “Not as much as you, Chuck.”

Barkley let out a good-natured laugh and told McIlroy, “OK, I’m on a diet!”

Last year, Barkley revealed that he had lost 65 pounds after he combined diet and exercise with Mounjaro, the FDA-approved diabetes drug that helps with weight loss. 

The ribbing between McIlroy and Barkley mostly earned approval of viewers at home. “They make a good team,” one fan wrote via X, while another said, “This is the stuff we tune in for.”

However, not everybody thought McIlroy’s joke was funny. “Rory is pretty immature, don’t you think?” one person commented. 

In August 2023, Barkley and McIlroy joked about the former NBA star’s weight loss after running into each other at The Tour Championship. 

“My doctor told me there ain’t no fat old people,” Barkley told McIlroy in a video posted via X by CBS. “He told me to get my fat ass in shape.”

As for Tuesday night’s Showdown, McIlroy and Scheffler, 28, who were representing the PGA, handily defeated DeChambeau, 31, and Koepka, 34, who were representing the Saudi-backed LIV Golf. 

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McIlroy’s victory came shortly on the heels of the three-time major champion revealing he planned on playing a lighter schedule during the upcoming 2025 season. 

“There’s a few tournaments that I played this year that I don’t usually play and that I might not play next year,” McIlroy told The Telegraph in November. 

He added, “At this point in my career … Hey, I’m 35 and have been out here for 17, 18 years, so I’m just going to go to the places that I enjoy and where I play well. Look I’ve done the hard slog, I’ve done that sort of 25 to 30 events a year. And I’m not getting any younger.”

The declaration came after a tumultuous year for McIlroy off the course. In May, McIlroy filed for divorce from his wife, Erica Stoll, after seven years of marriage. However, McIlroy dismissed the divorce less than a month later and the couple, who share daughter Poppy, remain together.