McIlroy let three shots go over the closing eight holes, which included a double-bogey six, to finish with a one-under-par 70.
Jay Townsend, the American ex-pro-turned-pundit, used Twitter to berate McIlroy for his course management, calling it “shocking” and “some of the worst I have ever seen beyond under-10s boys golf competition”.
A bruised McIlroy was having none of that. “Shut up,” he tweeted. “You’re a commentator and a failed golfer, your opinion means nothing!”
His willingness to engage on such robust terms was influenced by frustration and loyalty to his caddie, JP Fitzgerald, who was soundly walloped by the critics after McIlroy’s collapse on Masters Sunday.
Townsend was one of many suggesting Fitzgerald should have done more to stem the bleeding. Townsend stood by h Read more…
SANDWICH, ENGLAND – There may have been more than a touch of hysteria in the air when Rory McIlroy walked into the time slot, and some say the destiny, of Tiger Woods, but the new prodigy of golf knew that his first challenge was not to shoot the lights out of this venerable, moonscape establishment beside the English Channel.
With a hint that he maybe had at least a small feeling of a fighter who had just spent a little too much time on the tiles, McIlroy, who operated almost entirely in his own dimension at the U.S. Open last month, acknowledged rapturous cheers and hoots from a vast gallery and then breathed in some considerable relief.
THE young woman from ‘The New York Times’ seemed to have difficulty grasping the concept. Naturally, she was impressed that Gerry and Rosie McIlroy would work all the hours God sent to give their gifted son Rory every opportunity to fulfil his potential.
“So they must have really pushed him to succeed?” she surmised … then recoiled with surprise when I replied with a firm: “No!”
It was Sunday afternoon at the US Open and Rory McIlroy was romping to his record-breaking victory. As often happens when a young player from abroad is in contention, reporters from his homeland expect the local media to come knocking.
Usually it’s a pleasure to oblige…
Jjoie de vivre and youth are breaking out across golf, as if the renegade spirit of the late Seve Ballesteros has found new life in the Rory McIlroy generation. This is bad news only for the limping Tiger Woods, whose corporate, closed-off countenance is starting to feel like a bad memory from a time when the game sold its soul to Nike-ism.
The brilliance of Woods should not be rewritten only as a surrender to coldness and money. There were some pretty good shots in there, too.
Rory McIlroy threw away a four-shot lead in the final round at the Masters. Photograph: David J. Phillip/AP
Rory McIlroy has admitted he is going to find it difficult to forget his Masters meltdown – and having to share a 10,000-mile, 20-hour flight with the new champion Charl Schwartzel may make it that bit harder.
McIlroy, at a loss to fully explain his worst-ever day in golf, and Schwartzel, overjoyed after the best round of his life, were scheduled on the same Monday flight from Georgia to Kuala Lumpur, where the Malaysian Open begins later this week.
McIlroy slumped from four ahead going into the final round to 10 shots behind and joint 15th place with an eight-over-par 80 as Schwartzel won the green jacket for the first time.
“I was still one shot ahead going into the 10th and then things went all pear-shaped after that,” said the 21-year-old Northern Irishman, who triple-bogeyed the 10th, three-putted the 11th, four-putted the 12th and bogeyed the long 15th.
“It was a very disappointing day obviously. B