8. Don’t challenge Brad Dalke to an arm-wrestling match
Brad Dalke is one of those kids who made a major transformation throughout the course of the past decade. In 2010, he was a 13-year-old firmly committed to play college golf for Oklahoma (and had been committed for a year already). By 2017, he was holing the winning putt in the Sooners’ NCAA title run.
But in 2015, Dalke was the high school senior who defeated Rory McIlroy in an arm-wrestling match staged at the annual “Nike Night” during the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley.
“I took all my anger out from my 85 (on Thursday),” Dalke joked with Golfweek that day. “Working out and having good linebacker genetics is the secret. .. But he was a great guy. Pretty cool way to end my career at Sage Valley.”
Two years later, when Dalke qualified for the Masters courtesy of his runner-up finish at the U.S. Amateur, McIlroy declined a rematch, saying he didn’t want to “embarrass himself.”