McIlroy unflustered by bunker drama

Rory McIlroy insisted he had had no fears about being disqualified from The Masters - and called the entire episode "no big deal".

The 19-year-old Northern Irishman was called back to Augusta National by officials at around 8.40pm on Friday night over an incident in a bunker by the 18th green over four hours earlier. If he was ruled to have kicked sand after failing to get out first time the only possible penalty was disqualification, but it was decided there had been no violation.

"I thought the whole thing was handled very well and I was definitely surprised by the fuss," said the teenager after a one-under-par 71 in his third round left him level par for the tournament. "There was probably a bit of a fuss made that there should not have been."

He added: "After my round I didn't even think about what I did until Fred Ridley (chairman of the tournament committee) rang me to tell me what had happened and what he had seen.

"That was 6.30pm and then he called again and said, 'Do you want to have a look?'.

"I said, 'No - I'm confident I've done nothing wrong'.

"Then at 8.30pm he said it was in my best interest to come.

"It's a natural instinct for me to smooth out bunker shots. I didn't kick it.

"I slept okay and it's in the past now. I'm looking forward towards shooting a good score tomorrow.

"The reason it took so long was that I had left the property and I declined first time. I didn't think I was going to be disqualified - it wasn't a tantrum."