It's McIlroy v Jeff the robot! Watch the hilarious video as world No 2 takes on his stiffest challenge yet... beating a golf-lab computer in a driving range contest

By THOM DRAKE

Published: 18:43 EDT, 27 June 2013 | Updated: 03:04 EDT, 28 June 2013

When Rory McIlroy was nine, he appeared on The Kelly Show and chipped a ball into a washing machine. Now 24, the two-time Major winner took on a bigger, but not unrelated, challenge.

This time he faced some competition. The Golf Laboratory Computer Controlled Hitting Machine. Or Jeff the robot, as he appears to want to be known.

The aim was to hit the balls into the machines, with the talking robot trying to put McIlroy off as much as possible.

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Chipper: Rory McIlroy was facing a very different challenge against a golf machine

Enjoying it: McIlroy was having fun as he joked around with Jeff the robot

He even made fun of McIlroy's recent £160million deal with Nike bye saying after he hit a jackpot machine: 'Boom, the eagle has landed. Is that the same noise you heard when you signed your sportswear contract.'

McIlroy seemed to be enjoying himself, even when the competition went down to the wire and a mega washing machine rose up into the sky.

Hitting the jackpot! McIlroy didn't have things his own way

What a shot: McIlroy isn't too bad when it comes to golf

When he hasn't been watching Caroline Wozniacki's trials and tribulations on grass, he has been playing a few rounds of golf.

The Northern Irishman has been playing in the Irish Open, hitting a two over par first round in Kildare.