MCILROY HAS BEEN FIGHTING THE MEDIA FOR WEEKS, WHICH IS WHY HE CAN’T WIN
When it was leaked last month that his driver didn’t pass inspection, McIlroy forgot the praise written and said following the Masters, leaving him in poor form when he wants to enhance five majors
It was so much easier placing his arms through the sleeves of a green jacket. Winning a major event for the first time in 11 years — becoming the sixth golfer to win a career Grand Slam — Rory McIlroy has spent the last few weeks declaring war on the media. Does this make any sense? Finally, he’d won the Masters and verified his spot among the all-time greats. His life would be so much better. His face would be less entangled. Right?
This is what I wrote on April 13, similar to others: “He covered his face and fell to his knees, sobbing deeply into the surface of the grounds he overcame at last. For several minutes, he screamed and fell into a brief trance before hugging his caddie, his wife, his daughter and everyone else in an adorable scene. He tapped his wife on her hat, a nod to a woman who tried to divorce him last year before thinking otherwise.”
It’s why we watch sports, I said. Almost 4,000 days had passed since McIlroy claimed a meaningful trophy in the sport he should be controlling. Now he could breathe.
So why is he on a rampage? Last month at the PGA Championship, news was leaked that McIlroy’s driver had failed to pass inspection. Golfers are tested routinely before tournaments, including Scottie Scheffler, whose driver flunked at the same time. He went on to win his third major with a backup driver. McIlroy finished 47th and blew off talking to reporters.
And so here we are in June. McIlroy shot 4-over 74 Thursday at Oakmont Country Club and will not win the U.S. Open. Is it possible he’ll never win another major? I won’t go that far, but once again, he needs to find peace of mind. He did not speak to media.
When asked at the Canadian Open, McIlroy sounded like he’s sick of us. Why? Did he not read what people wrote and said at Augusta National? He’s still that wounded by his driver not passing inspection, when Scheffler responded quite well?
“I talk to the media a lot,” McIlroy said. “I think there should be an understanding that this is a two-way street, and as much as we need to speak to you guys — we understand the benefit that comes from you being here and giving us the platform and everything else, I understand that — but again, I’ve been beating this drum for a long time. If they want to make it mandatory, that’s fine, but in our rules it says that it’s not, and until the day that that’s maybe written into the regulations, you’re going to have guys skip from time to time, and that’s well within our rights.”
Then skip. And play poorly. And we won’t care anymore.
On his back nine, he three-putted. Then he needed two shots to make the fairway and bogeyed. Then he missed a five-footer. Then he missed a six-footer. Then he was gutted by a double bogey. He already is eight shots behind leader J.J. Spaun, on a day when Patrick Reed recorded an albatross — scoring his second shot from 286 yards. Scheffler still is exected to contend, though he struggled in the first round.
At one point, we wondered if McIlroy would expand on his five majors and win two more this year. Would he catch Gene Sarazen at seven? Ben Hogan and Gary Player at nine? This is not the time to ask him about big ones. He arrived in western Pennsylvania “trying to have a little bit of amnesia about what happened” at the PGA.
“I worked incredibly hard on my game from October last year all the way up until April this year (and) it was nice to sort of see the fruits of my labor come to fruition and have everything happen,’’ McIlroy said Tuesday. “But at the same time, you have to enjoy that. You have to enjoy what you’ve just accomplished. I certainly feel like I’m still doing that and I will continue to do that.
“At some point, you have to realize that there’s a little bit more golf left to play this season — here, Portrush (the British Open), Ryder Cup — so those are obviously the three big things that I’m sort of looking at for the rest of the year. Weeks like Quail Hollow (the PGA), it makes it easier to reset in some way, to be like, ‘OK, I sort of need to get my stuff together here.’ And get back to the process and sort of what I’d been doing for that seven months from October last year until April this year.’’
He drove home with a 74. First, he must find his putter. And his psyche?
It has eluded him again, gracious god.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.