by Justin Doyle
The third point really speaks for itself: they really had no future. It is a well known fact long distance relationships rarely (if ever) work. As well as that, they were far too young to settle down in their early 20s.
With that in mind, there was one subject not brought up by the media – pre-nuptial agreements/alimony. Rory could have had the serious implications of this pointed out to him by his elder advisors.
Tiger Woods’ divorce could have served as a sobering reminder to him of future pitfalls surrounding a possible marriage split of his own. In 2010, Fox News reported that Woods settled on a $750 million alimony figure with Elin Nordegren!
It was the biggest American divorce settlement in history with Elin also getting custody of the children. Most of the colossal sum was a sort of insurance policy whereby she agreed to remain silent on his alleged affairs with three named women and up to 17 others.
So most certainly, there were huge risks for Rory rushing into marriage at the age of 25.
A future of unlimited potential to be gained from their respective sporting careers meant that, in truth, they were just a little too young to settle down. It was for the best, sentiments echoed entirely by Europe’s 2012 Ryder Cup Captain Jose Maria Olazabal.
When he was asked for his views on the split he lamented:
It is tough for golfers to have relationships. We spend a lot of time away from home and it is hard to keep a relationship going. There are some good things about golf but also some not so good things. I wish Caroline and Rory all the best. Their time will come. They are very young.
Chapter 13
Hoylake Ahoy!
Sensationally, Rory McIlroy went on to win that BMW Championship in England. The very tournament he held a shaky record in, and where it seemed more important to turn up because all the top Europeans were travelling to play in it.
Just three days after pouring his heart out to the world over his decision to part with Caroline Wozniacki, he won. It was a mysterious win. You could never say that Rory set the world alight with his golf that week.
For the first few days, and somewhat understandably, he seemed to be just going through the motions. A first round 68 was promising but a 71 the next day followed by a 69 indicated that a win was never really on the cards as he trailed leader Tomas Bjorn by seven shots.
It was as if his thoughts were off course – wondering if he had made the right decision; looking and feeling the crowds response to it and gauging how the players and the golf world had taken the news.
Caroline’s fellow Dane, Tomas Bjorn, was one of those to commiserate with Rory and this probably helped to lift a weight off his shoulders. The crowd warmed to him as well and all of a sudden he began to feel free and ready to express himself on the course.
The chains and shackles had been removed. So far behind going into the final round, he could loosen his elbow with nothing to lose. He shot a magnificent 66 as Bjorn, who held a five shot lead over Donald, really threw the tournament away with a disastrous +3, 75.
Beaming with delight as he held the trophy and a cheque for just short of €800,000, Rory admitted as much as he said:
I’m not exactly sure what I am feeling right now. It has obviously been a week of very mixed emotions. I’m sitting here looking at this trophy going: ‘How the hell did it happen this week?’ But it did. I feel happy that I have won obviously but it has been a weird week.
However, the win finally rewarded him after he had been ultra consistent in the majority of tournaments played since the start of the 2014 season. He hit the ground running in Abu Dhabi back in January when he was runner-up.
A fortnight later at the Dubai Desert Classic he opened up with a superb -9, 63. This helped him to a top 10 finish before he jetted home to Florida where he was about to take the US Tour by storm over the next three months.
He may have walked out of the Honda Classic the previous year but 12 months on, he thrilled the locals by opening with yet another 63. Further rounds of 66 and 69 put him in position for a sensational win but a 74 spoiled what would have been a perfect return.
Nevertheless a cool half million dollars and runner-up finish showed that he was in great form with one eye on the US Masters a month later. Before Augusta he finished 25th in the Cadillac and a week before the first major finished seventh in the Houston Open.
You just had to admire where he and his coach had come from. No missed cuts to mid-April, two 63s and two runners-up positions was a total contrast and the perfect tonic and antidote to the miserable year before. But the one that really mattered was up next.
Rory stated previously that, since his ‘Masters meltdown’, he always seems to throw in a bad nine holes at Augusta. It happened again when he shot a +5, 77 in the second round which after a modest opening 71 put him in grave danger of missing the cut.
He just about made it with another 71 but those rounds were never going to trouble Bubba Watson who went on to win it by three shots. A final effort of 69 brought Rory up to a share of eighth with the likes of veteran Bernhard Langer.
It was another top 10 but the Masters is now becoming one big psychological worry for him. Forever at the back of his mind will be the thought that he may never get a better chance of winning than in 2011 when he led the field by four shots on the final day.
Augusta is a very mysterious course. It is governed by great golfing gods looking at you from every direction. The spirits of great souls past pervade that glorious piece of golfing heaven.
Winds seem to blow in and across from different directions; they can cause confusion and the haunting sounds of birds which echo through the valleys and shady areas are enough to put you off your concentration.
Irish legend and ‘World Golf Hall of Fame’ recipient Christy O’Connor Senior never wished to play the Masters and never did despite numerous invites. He was not the only one.
Lee Trevino could not abide it and only played on sufferance as the PGA threatened to throw the book at him. When he did eventually come back and play it, he preferred to stay in his room and mend his clubs rather than socialise with those who forced his hand.
Phil Mickelson was exasperated for years in trying to win the event. Butch Harmon told him that he would not win unless he modified his aggressive driving. Although Phil persisted and eventually climbed into a Green Jacket, there is a lesson for Rory.
What he must do to win a Masters is to start playing ‘smart golf’ around there. He has laughed about ‘the cabins’ incident and gone back to inspect it but what he has probably not thought about is the fatalistic message behind that pivotal moment.
Many sportsmen and women have their superstitions. Equally their sports are full of them, and as a studious observer of sport since I was a young boy, it is actually remarkable how time and again many of them ring true.
Football has its ‘if you don’t convert your chances you’ll be punished’ and ‘luck evens itself out’, while in snooker they say ‘the balls won’t forgive you’. There are powerful forces at work everywhere.
Why did Rory clip that tree? He could not believe what happened. It is the same as asking Tiger Woods why he suddenly decided to start leaving his driver in his bag. Tiger knew he had to begin playing smart golf instead of power golf. It won him majors.
At Augusta, Rory: strategically and with great care plot your way, whereby you must start to caress and use finesse. Love that ball and love the course. Marvel at it bouncing into the nice carpeted fairways and greens; look around to feel and understand its history.
Only then you will begin to understand how you must give yourself as a sacrifice to their gods. Once they know they have your love and respect, you will be rewarded. Power, aggression and the wrong frame of mind are frowned upon.
Those forces governing the course at Wells Fargo adore Rory and the feeling is mutual. Even the sound of that tournament is phonetically one of the nicest in golf – the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow.
It must make Rory want to eat quail for di
nner and quail eggs for breakfast because he is rarely out of the top 10 there and holds the course record. So it proved again at Wells Fargo as three weeks later he matched his Masters finish with another eighth place.
He went from one extreme to the other the following week when he once again tried to climb and conquer his own personal Everest at the Players in Sawgrass. It did not look too good after he opened with rounds of 70 and 74 to just about make the weekend.
Martin Kaymer opened with a -9, 63 and was never caught. Rory did improve with a 69 in the third round and he closed with a fine 66 which helped him soar up the leaderboard to a share of sixth place.
Those last two rounds will give him confidence confronting Sawgrass in future. The previous year he had opened with a 66 and finished tied eighth and this time he closed with the same score to again finish in the top 10, so he looks like reaching the summit soon.
At the Memorial Tournament three weeks later he registered another good result when finishing just outside the top 10 in 15th. He was still showing brilliant consistency but without ever threatening to take an event by the scruff of the neck and win handsomely.
A fortnight after Ohio came the second major of the year, the 114th US Open. Rory was coming into Pinehurst, North Carolina, in great confidence on the back of excellent consistency.
His game was in good shape and he was hoping for just one final push to land the win his form merited and his third major. But Martin Kaymer, who blew the field away after his first round in the ‘Fifth Major’, blitzed the entire US Open field at the halfway point.
US Opens are noted for being such tough assignments that normally someone under par or level par can win the event. Such was the case the previous year when Justin Rose won his first major in the US Open at Merion, Pennsylvania on one over par with Mickelson second on three over.
That was nothing compared to 2006 when Geoff Ogilvy triumphed at Winged Foot recording a four round total of six over. In 2007 at Oakmont, Angel Cabrera went one better by winning on five over!
After two rounds, the German broke several records by carding 65, 65 for 10 under. It must be stressed that it was even better than Rory’s 11 under in 2011 because this was a par-70 course to Rory’s par 72 at Congressional (Rory was -13 through 35 holes). With Kaymer on fire, Rory was never really in with a chance after his opening salvo of 71 and 68. He was nine shots behind and, like the rest of the field in these brutal tests, he regressed after that.
Further rounds of 74 and 73 meant he finished on six over which was still good enough for 23rd. Only three men finished under par. Kaymer matched Rory’s eight shot winning margin in 2011 by winning on nine under from Erik Compton and Rickie Fowler on one under. Fourth was one over par.
The thing about this result which depressed McIlroy was that only two majors remained and he was now in great danger of successive seasons without major success. All of his consistency bore no fruit.
More to the point, and if you ignore his last gasp Australian triumph, then he was almost one and a half years without a win in Europe or the US. Make no bones about it – Nike would have been concerned. He said:
I’m wondering how he [Kaymer] did it, yeah. It’s tough. I think I’ve made a total of nine birdies this week. I don’t see anymore out there. It’s tough. Obviously, if you limit the mistakes, you might end up a couple under par for the week, because you’re always going to make a few mistakes. But to do what he did – I think it’s nearly more impressive than what I did at Congressional.
Rory had only four days until he teed up in the Irish Open at Fota Island Resort in Cork. To make matters even worse, when he arrived at the Southern Ireland course, his Nike clubs were nowhere in sight.
United Airlines had somehow managed to lose them in transit and a frantic search was underway to locate them. They were eventually found but it did not do much for his preparations and he ended up missing the cut.
The clubs issue contributed to his first round 74 but he fought like a tiger the next day to make the cut. He failed by the narrowest of margins after a 69 and was clearly frustrated, gutted and embarrassed afterwards as he explained:
It’s very frustrating. To make six birdies an eagle and shoot just two under means there were a lot of mistakes and wasteful shots. To miss the cut here for the second year in a row is not a nice position to be in. It is very disappointing.
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On 18 June, totally unexpected and out of the blue, Rory announced at the Irish Open in Fota Island to a ripple of applause that he would represent Ireland in the Olympics. It was a huge relief and load off his mind as no doubt it was for many in Ireland. He said:
It’s just a continuation of what I’ve always done really. I represented Ireland at Boys and Youths level in European and World Championships and just because I’m now a professional playing for money, it doesn’t change that.
When he was asked if it had been a big decision and if he was relieved, he revealed:
Not really because when I had a little time to myself and I sat down and really thought about it, as I said it was just a continuation of what I’ve always done. So I’ll be delighted and I’m really looking forward to pulling on the Irish jersey in Brazil in 2016.
In the circumstances, it was galling for McIlroy to miss the cut at the Irish Open. In fact it was to be his only M/C of the entire season on the US and European tour. He has stated he badly wants to win his home Open. There are several reasons for that:
He is Irish and was helped and nurtured by the GUI; Padraig Harrington and Shane Lowry have won it in recent years; he wants to become only the fifth Irishman to win it in almost 40 years since Christy O’Connor Junior won the inaugural event in 1975.
So it would be a major blot on his resume if he fails. That is not to mention the great list of illustrious names to have won it – Ben Crenshaw, Hubert Green, Sam Torrance, Seve, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Ollie, Sir Nick Faldo, Monty and Sergio Garcia.
Many people felt that Rory wanted to ‘buy an Irish Open’ with the announcement a week before the 2014 Ryder Cup that his company would sponsor the 2015 Irish Open as it moved to Royal County Down.
Of course this is total nonsense as he has to physically go out and win it. It is also nice for the ‘Rory Foundation Irish Open’ to be held in beautiful County Down where Rory knows the course so well.
I do however feel strongly our Irish Open should also be reinstated at two other courses where I believe Rory would have a great chance of winning.
Portmarnock last staged it in 2003 and it would be so romantic for Rory to win there where all the legends have won.
Baltray in County Louth is a beautiful links course which would suit his game enormously. It is compact and fair and I was privileged to see a young Henrik Stenson play it in 2004 along with Luke Donald and Woosie. Tellingly, Shane Lowry won there in 2009.
Rory took three weeks off until he returned a week before the British Open at Royal Aberdeen for the Scottish Open. A superb opening round of -7, 64 was so good that it was put up in flashing lights – *COURSE RECORD!*
It was not to last long as a couple of local Scots became Rory’s party poopers.
Scott Jamieson equaled it with 64 in the last round before Stephen Gallacher took possession of the new outright record with a 63 later that afternoon.
Rory’s second round told a far different story and a nasty horror habit was forming. He gave the seven shots back shooting 78. His chance of winning was over at the halfway point yet again as he eventually finished nine shots behind Justin Rose despite last rounds of 68 and 67.
Golf Channel’s morning edition talked of Rory having an almost ‘Freaky Friday’ complex where he could not string two great opening rounds together. He was following an opening sub-70 terrific Thursday with a frightful Friday round.
The evidence was there in the preceding weeks with great opening rounds followed by Friday scores of 77 at Augusta, 76 at Wells Fargo, 74 at the Players and a pair of terr
ible twin 78s at the Memorial and Aberdeen. But Rory left Aberdeen very happy stating: ‘I see enough good signs in my game to give me some confidence going into next week.’
Rory had been heavily criticised since the 2011 British Open when he moaned, groaned and complained about the wet and windy conditions. Many golfers expressed their opinions openly for and against Rory.
Men like Tom Watson, Ian Woosnam, Des Smyth and Eamon Darcy felt sympathy for him. In my 2011 book, I sought out the opinions of someone who actually played against him in the heat of amateur competition in wet and windy West of Ireland.
When Rory was 16, he played in the final of the Irish Close Championship at Westport, County Mayo, where he faced Eddie McCormack, a sales representative for a wine company. At 32, Eddie was twice his age.
He recollects that he went 1-up after five holes but on the back nine, Rory began to pull away when he went 4-up. Eddie pulled one back but attributes that to Rory losing a contact lens and he eventually lost 3 and 2.
The Galway man had consistently maintained, even before many in the higher echelons had pointed it out, that Rory would struggle to win a British Open unless he changed one particular facet of his game, as he explained:
Far be it for me to give Rory advice as he is obviously doing so much right over the last few years. But if I was to pinpoint one criticism of his game, I would say that he hits the ball far too high.
It is all very well doing that on a lot of golf courses – particularly inland. But I do feel that is the reason why he has struggled in the British Open. Because of that, he will find it very hard to string four good rounds together in the Open.
In the British Open, as well as in other events like the Irish Open, if he continues to hit the ball so high, it will mean that the ball will be carried by the wind and blown off course from its intended target. So in that aspect of his play, I think he’ll have to learn to adapt to the conditions. If he can fade it, or hit the ball lower, which I’m sure is no problem to him, then he can definitely win an Open.