That ride could have really set her back.
Golf influencer Cailin Henderson was surprised by the high fare when she requested an Uber to her hotel after the Ryder Cup in Times Square on Friday night.
She shared her experience on Instagram, posting screenshots of the app.
“I saw my friends and thought, ‘Are we serious?'” said Henderson, 25, on a Ryder Cup-related post early Saturday.
Henderson and her friend, professional golfer Madison Pool, attempted to book an Uber around 6:30 PM but reconsidered after seeing the steep fares for a ride from Farmingdale on Long Island to midtown Manhattan.
“From Times Square, it was showing around $190 to $200. And this was during rush hour! I was really taken aback by the price. I mean, who’s going to pay this?” she remarked.
She was also taken aback by the sheer number of people trying to get rides home.
“We waited almost two hours; there were about 250 people in line for an Uber,” Henderson recalled. She noted she’s been golfing since she was three.
When they finally tried to book a ride, the app was unresponsive.
“It just kept loading, wasting our time, and we needed to get to a sports event we were set to attend,” she explained.
Fortunately, her work as an influencer came to the rescue, as she was collaborating with DraftKings at the Ryder Cup and managed to make it to a nearby property the company had rented.
They then called for an Uber from that location, and thankfully, the fare was much more reasonable at $90.
Henderson, hailing from Carmel, Indiana, found it hard to adjust to New York’s soaring prices.
“Growing up in the Midwest, I’m just not accustomed to New York rates,” she noted. “In Indiana, I’d pay about $18 for an Uber.”
To get to Saturday’s game, Henderson and Pool opted for a smarter choice to save some cash.
“We actually took Lyft today because it was way cheaper than Uber,” she said, adding, “And it was half the price.”
