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ROCHESTER, NY – Rory McIlroy, in his adopted town, was a complete stranger.
“We are approaching the one-year anniversary of the first LIV golf tournament. If you could look at your crystal ball three years from now, where do you think the professional game would be?”
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” he said.
“You don’t want to speculate?”
“no.”
There were more. or less.
“You said after the Masters that you needed that break that you took. After doing that, did that kind of re-energize you? Obviously, it was a good idea. Do you think this will work in your favor this week?”
“I don’t know,” said McIlroy. “I needed it at that time. Whether or not it works this week remains to be seen.”
Perhaps the reformulated LIV Golf question will work.
I mentioned earlier about not having a crystal ball. Obviously, we’ve all asked you a lot of questions about LIV, and you’ve been talking to yourself recently about the burden of that. Would it be a conscious thing for you to move forward to try to avoid this narrative? “
“Yes.”
Well, that actually says a lot, despite it being one word.
To take a step back, you met last McIlroy, an eloquent, thoughtful speaker and certainly not reductive on everything, golf and non-golf. And some times Tuesday at his pre-PGA Championship press conference, that ghost reappeared, especially when talking about this upstate New York town where his wife Erica hails from, and Oak Hill Country Club, where the PGA Championship is held and where McIlroy is a member. Talk about the pride of the area, the Buffalo Bills. It was fed on the local cuisine coined Trash dish, which is as nicely presented as it looks. (McIlroy has had it before, but only once.)
But then they start wondering who all of those are last stuff, and it was like someone had hit McIlroy’s mute button. It was amazing. Those answers above, after all, were from the same man who led a year-long crusade against the Saudi-backed LIV. Do you remember the punches at Greg Norman? who eventually led change for his tour, the PGA Tour. Remember assembly A bunch of last year’s touring stars in Delaware To chart a course for the future? It was all too much — and he’s said it openly in the past, too.
And at the Masters, McIlroy was on fire.
He was the pre-championship favourite, and was finished two days later. this time, he ask a question:
how?
Away from his press conference on Tuesday, with two reporters he was familiar with, McIlroy revealed that this week has been, in a word, shocking.
“I was never sure I was going to have such a great week in Augusta,” he said.
He said it again.
“Never so sure.”
He completed.
Then it happened and it was a great lesson. It was a great lesson for me not to get too emotional or sentimental or — a five-under shot at nine o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon and I felt great and everything was in great place. But this is golf. And golf can be a hustler sometimes, like I said, and yeah, I think it’s the right time — that’s the chat I had with her [sports psychologist Bob] Rotella the night before. It’s like, I feel so good. How can I not get ahead of myself? How – A game can get you back down to earth quickly.
“But I think the best way to deal with that is to not let yourself get to that level of expectations so early, right? And that’s kind of what I try to do. Just take what the golf course gives me and hit good golf shots, you know, just try to get More acceptance. Now that I’m back in Augusta and maybe the last few months too, the level of acceptance isn’t where it needs to be. And if I work on it and do the right things, I know I’m going to start playing some really good golf again.” .
The week after the Masters, at the RBC Heritage, McIlroy withdrew. It wasn’t cheap. The move cost him $3 million under the round’s bonus structure. It might be surprising to you, but not to him. McIlroy needed to stop. He came back two weeks ago at the Wells Fargo Championship, made the cut but finished T47, which brings us back to Tuesday.
And this new kind of McIlroy, who might have left you asking: What did he do with the old man?
Good question.
He’s been thinking about it a lot. Here is where we will feature this first, from Paul McGinley. Shane Ryan in Golf Digest, in an excellent piece Must read hereThe longtime pro at the 2020 Players Championship asked about McIlroy.
“Rory McIlroy is also a talker,” he said. “Does it help him all the time? I don’t think so. You guys love him. You guys tell him how great he is because he gives you so much content. But does it help his competitiveness? Does it help his competition this week, when I saw the headline in the paper today Rory says America is lagging behind in coronavirus. Rory, why are you talking about the novel coronavirus? You’re here to win TPC f***ing. … Forget about coronavirus, it’s not your problem!”
Then the new McIlroy delved into the old. Pretty much the old McIlroy way of speaking. The first question and then its answer.
“So many agendas in the past period. And you’ve always built these things up. You’re a smart guy. You have the will to do the right thing. But is it time you got so selfish about Rory and his golf and the fact that you’re a winner and you want to get back in that winner’s circle?”
His first word was spoken out loud.
“definitely.”
He completed.
“Yeah yeah. I’d rather people talk about me because of my golf than the things I do behind the scenes or the things I say at press conferences or whatever.”
“So, definitelyHe said, focusing this time. “I don’t regret anything I’ve done because I think what has been done has been really beneficial and will help the players on the tour now. It will help the next generation of players and hopefully have a better professional tour to play on and all that stuff.
“So I think the business that’s been really good, but now that the wheels are on, yeah, it’s time to focus on me and focus on playing great golf.”
We’ve seen that McIlroy before.