Golf:Rory McIlroy’s apology for throwing club into lake saved him $20,000

Rory McIlroy has revealed some of the fascinating statistics behind his success, including how a simple apology saved him $20,000 (£13,000).

McIlroy has won three times this year but also hit the headlines in March for throwing his three iron into a lake at Doral during the WGC-Cadillac Championship.

The PGA Tour does not reveal how much players are fined for such incidents but McIlroy said: “The fine was reduced from $25,000 to $5,000 because I said I was sorry on the TV interview afterwards.”

McIlroy admitted he was surprised by some of the statistics surrounding his travel, competition and training regimes, which were produced by the team at Santander Spendlytics, who have developed an iOS app which tells customers how much they spend on their debit and credit cards, and where they spend it.

“When you are in the middle of it you don’t realise because it’s what you do, and then you step back and get presented with numbers and you’re like ‘wow,’” McIlroy said.

McIlroy’s 2015 season in numbers:

Training:

1,036 km (644 miles) ran

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3,300 lengths swam

6,800 press-ups

6,720 minutes spent stretching

6,320 pull-ups/chin-ups

640 km (400 miles) cycled

Travel:

350 hours in the air

287 hotel nights

118 airports used

18 days off

60 hours of music on playlist

165 hours slept on a plane

Golf:

16,500 balls hit

1 club thrown in water

1,500 km (932 miles) walked on course

301 fastest ball driven (kph)

210 media interviews

6,350 autographs