Rory McIlroy - 4 Time Major Winner

HighLine

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Well the golf community and media a fairly small crowd and word travels. Rory talks too. He seems to have decided to keep a very low profile too.

I know from my own experiences that ribs are a fecker. But - it looks like one of his breaks from the game ?

When is the last time he didn't play this end of season loop ?

Just my opinion but seems fairly obvious he is using the past injury as an excuse not to play. He seemed absolutely injury free during the British Masters and considering he already decided a few weeks before that to call an early end to his season because of his rib injury.... seems strange.

FixdePitchmark

HighLine wrote: »

Just my opinion but seems fairly obvious he is using the past injury as an excuse not to play. He seemed absolutely injury free during the British Masters and considering he already decided a few weeks before that to call an early end to his season because of his rib injury.... seems strange.

I'd be thinking this way too.

But to honest - can understand a lad at his age stepping away from the game - some guys just need to keep it fresh. He likes to have a normal life and not have to full a schedule.

Just a bit hard for people putting major money into end of season run - and main draw not turning up.

He genuinely just doesn't seem that into golf these days.

I'm actually not exaggerating - but I think most people on here seem to be more into golf than Rory.

At these times - I hope this lack effort and interest is not a source of regret for him later in life.

But he is, is own man

Keano

He’s in Dubai working on his game going by his social media accounts.

FixdePitchmark

Keano wrote: »

He’s in Dubai working on his game going by his social media accounts.

Not sure what that even means - as makes no sense - you work on your game in a few weeks with season over. You can work on your game in Turkey.

Turkish airways just put part of $700000 up. When he played he wasn't that far off.

I'd say he is working his tan.

AGC

He has been quite open all year about his game not being good. He knows his all round game wasn't at the races all year. The injury made things very start stop.

He has said he is taking a couple months away from the game to help the injury fully heal and then start working on his game.

Good luck to him, I for one want to see him back to his best. This thread can be head wrecking at times with the amount of questioning him and opinions.

ridonkulous

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Not sure what that even means - as makes no sense - you work on your game in a few weeks with season over. You can work on your game in Turkey.

Turkish airways just put part of $700000 up. When he played he wasn't that far off.

I'd say he is working his tan.

I don't want to get into an argument here and this might seem a little harsh but what are you on about?

He needs to work on his game, we know that, he knows that. He's decided to take a few extra weeks off and end his season early to do that. You don't know his non golf playing schedule. Maybe now was the best time for the extra time off. Money means nothing to this guy, an extra 700k added, he doesn't care. He's in the privileged position of playing for prestige and adding the Turkish open title to his list of wins would hardly be considered prestigious.

If he had shown up, played, and fallen away to a top 30 you'd probably bash him for not working on his game. I know I've opted out club comps in order to instead work on my game on several occasions mid season. Why isn't he allowed to do the same? He can certainly afford to. Season endings are just money, where's the interest for him, there isn't.

FixdePitchmark

ridonkulous wrote: »

I don't want to get into an argument here and this might seem a little harsh but what are you on about?

Well is he injured ?
Is he working on his game ?
Is the money not a motivator ?
Is he happy in Dubai ?

As a golf fan - none of above are meaningful to me. Will he be fine when it comes to the Dubai event ? It seems a strange coincidence.

As a sport fan - any pro just not turning up or being bothered is not something that I'm going to admire.

You can work on your game at events - Rory doesn't play many events.
You can work on your game off season.

I'd love to see him play more golf.

Hard to think of many examples of golfers who when things go a little wrong stops playing. Part of being a pro golfer is grinding it out, scoring when your game isn't great.

Hard to think of any top European golfers in the last 30 years - who just don't play when things not going perfect. But as you said - Rory has so much money , he can do what he wants - I guess we are getting to the kernel of the mater.

But Tiger had all the money in the world - many others like Day and Rose and Spieth - they stick it out when not going well even injured , they turn up, they play at events.

So as a fan - I just don't know about Rory's motivation for the game.

I want to see him play golf. Good , bad, at the top events. It is not like he is skipping 2nd or 3rd tier - he is skipping top events.

Rory is his own man - but I'm a frustrated golf fan. Best of luck to him in Dubai.

tommypepper

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

........
Rory is his own man - but I'm a frustrated golf fan. Best of luck to him in Dubai.

I appreciate the effort you put into your posts etc but at times they are a real brain dump and hard to read.

Think you need to take a chill pill on McIlroy

AGC

"FixdePitchmark wrote: »

But Tiger had all the money in the world - many others like Day and Rose and Spieth - they stick it out when not going well even injured , they turn up, they play at events.

So as a fan - I just don't know about Rory's motivation for the game.

I want to see him play golf. Good , bad, at the top events. It is not like he is skipping 2nd or 3rd tier - he is skipping top events.

Rory is his own man - but I'm a frustrated golf fan. Best of luck to him in Dubai.

Jason Day is a complete moan bag who will lay the blame at anything bar himself when things are going bad. At least Rory acknowledges he is not playing well and needs to work on it.

Tiger has allowed injuries and playing through injuries basically (hopefully not) finish his career, maybe Rory doesn't want to go down the same route of operation and operation.

Rory is one of the elite who when things are not going well can afford to take time away and get things right, be that mentally, physically or his game.

Rory stuck out a lot of the year when injured, from the play off in South Africa through to British Masters.

do you feel the same about someone like Martin Kaymer or Poulter who both have missed large parts of the last couple of years to injury?

brady23

I have voiced similar opinions regarding the level of anti-McIlroy posters on this thread.
The underlying narrative that is continually pushed regarding his lack of focus, disinterest in golf and interest in money etc is just ridiculous and in no way reinforced in any factual manner.

I think he has done more than enough in his career thus far that should allow him the right to choose what he feels is best for his career.

I would tend to believe him regarding his injury, tbf to him he speaks in a relatively transparent manner when compared to other athletes of a similar magnitude across various sports. He very rarely appears scripted imo.
Yes he's made some mistakes ie the Olympics etc but he's been relatively transparent and open.

I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt especially when the doubt is so weakly supported.

ForeRight

Why get so worked up over Rory.
He's always done what he thinks suits him best so good luck to him. He will have to deal with the consequences of playing, not playing, practicing, gym etc etc.

He owes golf fans nothing in terms of turning up for events.

AGC

Stenson has withdrawn from Nedbank with a rib injury.....wonder how Swedish boards is reacting

Derek Zoolander

AGC wrote: »

Stenson has withdrawn from Nedbank with a rib injury.....wonder how Swedish boards is reacting

there would be an all out riot here if McIlroy had injured himself suspended from a ceiling in an opening ceremony

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/henrik-stenson-hints-he-suffered-season-ending-injury-doing-that-wacky-shanghai-photo-shoot

backspin.

Where is Rory these days?

ForeRight

backspin. wrote: »

Where is Rory these days?

On a break. Scheduled back in for mid January in Abu Dhabi do.

FixdePitchmark

backspin. wrote: »

Where is Rory these days?

Watching Tiger on TV - what else.

backspin.

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Watching Tiger on TV - what else.

Pity he wasn't there too. Top field.

Halfprice

Hopefully he's working hard on his putting and 150-100y in. Woods has all that already and he away for a year or 2

Quintis

Pretty busy start to his season...

https://t.co/LeFJyFUFf5

BoardsMember

I see he has decided to stick with his best friend as caddy for 2018:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/dec/08/rory-mcilroy-harry-diamond-caddie-2018-golf-season-masters

Rory knows best.

Anatom

BoardsMember wrote: »

I see he has decided to stick with his best friend as caddy for 2018:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/dec/08/rory-mcilroy-harry-diamond-caddie-2018-golf-season-masters

Rory knows best.

What's JP up to these days?

Quintis

Anatom wrote: »

What's JP up to these days?

Not sure tbh, Harry is continuing in the bag for the year ahead anyway

bren2001

Anatom wrote: »

What's JP up to these days?

Mans sorted for the rest of his life. Can only see it worth his while to go on a big names bag, can't see him getting a big bag. It'd be good if Sky got him on as a pundit for the Masters to discuss Rory etc.

First Up

bren2001 wrote:

Mans sorted for the rest of his life. Can only see it worth his while to go on a big names bag, can't see him getting a big bag. It'd be good if Sky got him on as a pundit for the Masters to discuss Rory etc.

Can't see why he'd bother carrying any bag other than his own. He's a multi millionaire.

Anatom

bren2001 wrote: »

It'd be good if Sky got him on as a pundit for the Masters to discuss Rory etc.

I'd love to hear more from caddies generally, not just from JP (although he could be great too). Getting the background from that side of the partnership would be really insightful.

Quintis

Anatom wrote: »

I'd love to hear more from caddies generally, not just from JP (although he could be great too). Getting the background from that side of the partnership would be really insightful.

Ya, Bones was good at the Hero, interesting insights, better than Notah for sure

Keano

Quintis wrote: »

Pretty busy start to his season...

https://t.co/LeFJyFUFf5

Cannot now be said that he will not have played enough before the Masters

HighLine

Is he skipping the two WGC's before the Masters? Would be surprised if that was the case.

backspin.

I never head less from Rory, he really is lying low. Hope he is well rested and ready to go for a good 2018 season.

HighLine

Good interview in The Telegraph with Rory below. He sounds very positive so hoping for a good start to the year for him next week in Abu Dhabi.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/golf/2018/01/12/rory-mcilroy-reveals-secret-heart-drama-china-virus-scare/

Exclusive interview: Rory McIlroy reveals secret heart drama after China virus scare
Even a heart irregularity will not derail Rory McIlroy from his 2018 objective. He has undergone the tests, “absolutely loved the down time” and has come out of this period of self-examination by declaring his mission to return to world No 1 by the end of the year.

After a near four-month break – the longest of his career – McIlroy is plainly itching to go and will resume in the Abu Dhabi Championship on Thursday.
Sitting down in a coffee bar on Friday beneath the tower of his Dubai residence, the 28-year-old projected the air of an athlete who had recovered his spark – as well his mojo.

Except, the health report he delivered was unexpected after the injured rib which plagued his winless season of 2017.

“The rib’s fine, no problems whatsoever – I had an MRI scan on my thoracic spine and all was OK,” McIlroy said, after returning from yet another sun-lit practice session. “But I’ve got a bit of an irregularity with my heart that I have to keep on top of.

“I have a flat T-wave and I’ll have to get an echo [cardiogram] on my heart every six months and an MRI scan every year.
I suffered a really bad viral infection in China 18 months ago and they told me that’s the reason that I have this thickening of my left ventricle and there’s a bit of scar tissue. For now, I just need to stay on top of it and have to stay fit. Hey, I was planning on doing that anyway.”

One of McIlroy’s many charms is that he is always unflustered. It is his blessed state of mind. Following the health bulletin, he sat back in his seat and sipped on his cappuccino and barely winced when his world ranking was put to him. He may be 11th – the one and only time this decade that he has been ranked outside the top 10 at the start of a year – but that does not rankle.

“I don’t judge it like that,” McIlroy said. “I don’t care about the world rankings. I think about number of wins, the ability of the players against me, the number of majors the others have. I don’t feel I need to compare myself to anyone else, because I know what I can do. I’m not hung up on it.

“I still feel that on my day, if I’m on my roll, and especially if I’m playing with them…  I just crave to be in that position again.

“That hasn’t always been the case with me. The first three years with my career I struggled when it came to that head-to-head stuff down the stretch, with the big guys, but now I actually think it’s when I am at my best.

“I played my best last year when I played the last round of the British Masters and actually had a sniff. Once I give myself a shout, I fancy it now.

“Maybe before, I had to win from the front. I just don’t feel that now. I don’t fear any of them. Any one of them. I’ve beaten them before. I’ve seen what I have done in practice before, that I know I’m on track to where I want to be.

“It’s nice to be world No 1, sure, and I will get back there, but it’s all about winning tournaments. And I will give myself the best chances this season.”

The mission is highlighted on the back of a plane ticket. Except it would be, if he had continued that wonderful tradition which stretched back to when he was a dreaming lad in economy penning his goals on the reverse of 36C. He says there is a leather-bound diary now in which his goals are recorded and when McIlroy makes his season debut at the Abu Dhabi Championship the demands will still be penned in ink.

And he will be delighted to have that appetite back following what he called “the dreary end to 2017”. “To be honest, I just went through the motions for the last few months last year,” McIlroy said.

“That’s not me. But it was a product of the circumstances. I knew within myself that I couldn’t compete at the end of last season because I hadn’t done the work beforehand, and that’s because I hadn’t been fit enough and if you can’t practice, you can’t compete.

“It’s the way the year went after suffering the rib injury in the first tournament of the year. I had a few top 10s, seventh at Augusta and then I took a month off and had a honeymoon, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. And then I came back and my rib flared up again and I shouldn’t have played the US Open.

“I got injured at the Players and should have said, ‘yeah, I’ll miss a major’, because I was only there to get by and you can’t win a major by ‘getting by’. The season just went on, had a bit of chance at the Open, but, you know, I really needed these 3½ months of just me and team and family. Mentally more than physically probably.
It’s been 10 years that I’ve been a pro and to me that’s incredible. In January 2008, I was right here in Dubai, getting ready for my first full season on the European Tour, playing Abu Dhabi the next week, as I am now, and that’s taken its toll. I needed the reset that I’ve just had. Let’s just say that between now and when I signed off last year, I feel way more optimistic, focused, motivated, purposeful. I know exactly what I can do.”

However seismic the expectations are with McIlroy – and just the start of it remains beating Sir Nick Faldo’s European record of six majors and challenging Gary Player’s non-American mark of nine – the man himself knows what he has to conquer. “I want to keep going on that journey – resuming it even,” McIlroy said. “I won four majors from 2011 to 2014 and everyone was saying ‘that’s Tiger pace’. And I realise everyone knows I haven’t won one in the last three years and that is a worry, yeah. I need to get back on that track and this year my goals are to add to my major tally and get back to world No  1, winning more times than anyone else. It’s simple, there are no excuses with my game or my private life. I’ve had the best time of my life in the last few months.”

It began with a road trip through Italy with his wife, Erica – in a wedding present of a 1950 Mercedes Sl 1950 – and that euphoria was only punctured by repeated gym sessions between the respective festive visits to in-laws’ homes in Rochester and Belfast. And then the McIlroys bought Ernie Els’s home just along the freeway from their own residence in West Palm Beach.

Erica remains there while the husband does his thing. “We are renovating but not quite rebuilding – it’ll be amazing when we’re done”, McIlroy said. You could only feel that sums up his career.