Rory McIlroy - 4 Time Major Winner

seanl77

Remind me wrote: »

If other top names take the same decision as Rory it will not be fine and you could see it not being a Rolex event again (how long have they committed to Irish Open being a Rolex?) in the future.

The BMW has turned into a second string event.

The BMW has a over six million euros prizefund, not exactly the Moroccan open in fairness

bilston

He has done a lot for the Irish Open over the last few years surely he can be forgiven for missing it once when the British Open is taking place in Northern Ireland a week later. He says himself that could be the biggest tournament of his career.

Obviously if he doesn't take part in 2020 then that's different, but that's for the future.

HighLine

Disappointing to hear it confirmed he will skip it and I also feel (armchair expert opinion) that 3 weeks in a row in close geographic proximity isn't that much of an ask. But as previous posters have said, he brought the Irish Open back from its knees to being the Rolex series event it is now.

And also remember his win at the K-Club. All his prize money went to Irish charities both sides of the boarder. Added to that was all the proceeds from the "Evening with Alex Ferguson" night he did during that week in Dublin. I think we can give him a pass for one year.

techdiver

bilston wrote: »

He has done a lot for the Irish Open over the last few years surely he can be forgiven for missing it once when the British Open is taking place in Northern Ireland a week later. He says himself that could be the biggest tournament of his career.

Obviously if he doesn't take part in 2020 then that's different, but that's for the future.

But that's not what is happening. He's skipping the Irish Open 2 weeks before the British Open and will play the Scottish Open the week before the British Open.

So the excuse doesn't hold for me.

londonred

He should of turned up played the 2 rounds got a bit of practice in Portrush at the weekend and then move on to Scotland.

Remind me

seanl77 wrote: »

The BMW has a over six million euros prizefund, not exactly the Moroccan open in fairness

Look at the field compared to 5 years ago, it’s holds its prize money because it is the ‘players’ championship

Keano

techdiver wrote: »

But that's not what is happening. He's skipping the Irish Open 2 weeks before the British Open and will play the Scottish Open the week before the British Open.

So the excuse doesn't hold for me.

He did say at the start of the year he wanted to play a tournament a week before each major so it was obvious then Ireland was not on the agenda as that would have been 2 weeks before the Open.

seanl77

Remind me wrote: »

Look at the field compared to 5 years ago, it’s holds its prize money because it is the ‘players’ championship

Not exactly sure why we are discussing the PGA to be honest, as far as I'm concerned Rory missing the Irish open this year isn't the end of the tournament going forward. If a tournament has a top prize of a million euro enough of the top players will show up. As for the rolex series, he isn't going to play too many of them anyway so missing lahinch is no big deal. Its absolutely terrible Public relations again of course, he really makes life so hard for himself

neddynasty

HighLine wrote: »

Disappointing to hear it confirmed he will skip it and I also feel (armchair expert opinion) that 3 weeks in a row in close geographic proximity isn't that much of an ask.

Playing 3 tournaments in a row isn't that big a deal if you consider just the Thursday - Sunday. When you factor in travel, sponsors commitments, media obligations, practice and practice rounds, conditioning work (strength, flexibility etc) on the Monday - Wednesday it doesn't leave a lot of time for rest.

If Rory was to play the Irish Open and then Scottish Open (week before a major as he wants to do) he could be looking at the final round of The Open as his 21st day in a row working. Is anyone at their best on the 21st day in a row working?

Adiaga 2

Wouldn't hold this against Rory. It's just a pity the European Tour couldn't have negotiated moving the Irish Open to the week before The Open as a one-off. It could have been a fantastic couple of weeks of world class sport on the island of Ireland. Hopefully Lahinch will still get the world class field it deserves but I doubt it. It's on over the 4th of July weekend too so chances are most of the big American names will stay in the US. The Irish Open has been dogged with bad scheduling luck for years. It's over 20 years since it had a truly world class field with strength in depth.

Anyway(back on topic), I don't blame Rory.

martingriff

techdiver wrote: »

But that's not what is happening. He's skipping the Irish Open 2 weeks before the British Open and will play the Scottish Open the week before the British Open.

So the excuse doesn't hold for me.

He does not want to play 3 weeks in a row. He also does not want to go in to a Major week cold from not having played. So he is skipping the rish and then playing the Scottish as a warm up is seems sound to me

slave1

Let's hope he doesn't win The Open, we'll never see him again!!!

bilston

techdiver wrote: »

But that's not what is happening. He's skipping the Irish Open 2 weeks before the British Open and will play the Scottish Open the week before the British Open.

So the excuse doesn't hold for me.

Fine, can you accept he has done a hell of a lot for the Irish Open in the past?

If he returns next year then I don't see any reason to dispute his reasoning.

HarshOstrich

bilston wrote: »

Fine, can you accept he has done a hell of a lot for the Irish Open in the past?

Doesn’t matter what he done in the past, he should be at every Irish open.
It’s not a lot to ask for him to play in his national tournament, especially being a high profile player.
Attention seeking clown.

tayto lover

techdiver wrote: »

I don't buy the excuse. If he was worried about playing 3 weeks in a row, why not skip the Scottish Open instead?

Spot on.
Play your own and skip the Scottish one.

Remind me

HarshOstrich wrote: »

Doesn’t matter what he done in the past, he should be at every Irish open.
It’s not a lot to ask for him to play in his national tournament, especially being a high profile player.
Attention seeking clown.

Would you put all the English players who haven’t shown up at the British masters over the last couple of years in the and bracket?

Joe_ Public

Don’t know exact stats but i think the majority of open champions in recent years have teed up in scotland the previous week. Molinari didn’t last year but played in the states, as I’m sure did spieth the previous year. Rory played in Scotland the year he won in hoylake. He played irish that year too but there was a 2 week gap between irish and scottish that year.

It’s a massive open for him this year, truly special given it’s on his home patch, likely the only such chance he’ll get in his career. Maximising his chances means, in his eyes, playing the week before and ireland is an unfortunate victim of that imperative. I think for all he has done for his home tournament in recent years, he deserves some understanding on that basis. Clearly not everyone feels that way, though!

HarshOstrich

Remind me wrote: »

Would you put all the English players who haven’t shown up at the British masters over the last couple of years in the and bracket?

I would yes, Harrington always said the Irish open was like his 5th major as it was his home tournament.
When did playing 3 weeks in a row become such a bad thing.
He’s only made his prep worse as he will have extra pressure on him now.

TheRiverman

In the unlikely event that he wins the Masters in Augusta will he change his mind considering that he said he needed to play less in Europe to give him a better chance of winning another major ?

Dav010

This thing of playing less in Europe to win another Major really annoys me. He should just come out and say he prefers playing in the US because there is more money and wider fairways/more forgiving lies.

These guys don’t travel coach, they either go first class or have their own jet. To go from Florida to California/ Chicago is not that different from Florida to Ireland. I don’t see how playing in the US makes it more likely he is going to win a major. The Europeans showed in the last Ryder Cup that being more accurate off the tee was better than raw power and while many of the tournaments in the US don’t penalise you too much if you are out of position, the Masters/US open/Open does.

What could be better preparation for the Open than 2 tournaments played on links courses in similar conditions and with a partisan crowd like he will have in Portrush? Lahinch in the wind is a heck of a place to practice/fine tune his short game under tournament conditions.

Seve OB

martinkop wrote: »

The lad single handily put the Irish Open back on the map, got it into the Rolex Series,

well that's not entirely true.

Joe_ Public

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Don’t know exact stats but i think the majority of open champions in recent years have teed up in scotland the previous week. Molinari didn’t last year but played in the states, as I’m sure did spieth the previous year. Rory played in Scotland the year he won in hoylake. He played irish that year too but there was a 2 week gap between irish and scottish that year.

It’s a massive open for him this year, truly special given it’s on his home patch, likely the only such chance he’ll get in his career. Maximising his chances means, in his eyes, playing the week before and ireland is an unfortunate victim of that imperative. I think for all he has done for his home tournament in recent years, he deserves some understanding on that basis. Clearly not everyone feels that way, though!

Those who play Scotland gain a stroke over does that play in the us the week before

charlieIRL

I honestly don’t care if he was playing it or not and if I was around that weekend, him not playing would not stop me going. There’s more players to watch.
He doesn’t want to play, that’s his choice.

backspin.

He is looking very British out there in Mexico with his red white and blue outfit...

/ I'll get my coat /

FixdePitchmark

Its disappointing after him buying in so much.

We don't know why for 100% sure - if he was to spend the week at home and focus just on the Open - an event he should be favorite for, you could understand why.

The Irish open has been all about Rory and he did say that the week was enjoyable , but his off course commitments when here are significant.

Anyway - disappointed.

But we have been here before with Rory - you just can't nail him down. He is a bit of a mystery.

He is all golf - then no golf
He is all Irish Open - No Irish Open
He is all Olympics - No Olympics
He is against Links golf - then all into it
He is all his into his caddy - then Not
He is no to Ryder Cup - Then wouldn't miss it for the world

He comes across a lad in his 20s - he still is.

Remind me

Some shot by him on the 1st his 10th in Mexico.

Doesn’t sound like he and McGinley have had a falling out....

HighLine

McGinley just said he spoke to Rory for 15 minutes on the range yesterday so any rumours of a fall out there would appear not to be true.

ligerdub

Using the British Masters as a comparison is weak. The national open for people from England is the Open Championship.......and they sure don't miss that one by choice.

The British Masters wasn't played for a few years and doesn't have the same prestige and heritage to Brits as the Irish open does to the Irish. There used to be a ton of tour events played in England, there's only 3 now, maybe 2. The flagship regular event in that regard is the BMW in Wentworth.

Molinari winning last year was based on the brilliant form he was in. He was pretty much obliged to play that tournament in the states due to obligations to sponsors. This idea of playing the week before the Open as important is a very new thing. It was possibly Phil Mickelsons win before Muirfield which changed this. Before that the smart money was on those who rested up from tournament golf the week before.

From a golfing point of view I'm not buying his 3 weeks in a row excuse. He never does that then? He did that twice last year, and completed 7 tournaments in 9 weeks, many of which had significant traveling in between. He also did quite well in that block! He has a heavy schedule running up to the summer right enough, but the Open is pretty much the top of the mountain. If he really wants to play in Scotland then he can suck up the 3 weeks in a row.

It's not like the Scottish Open is more prestigious than the Irish open, they are on a par. If anything, having the "home" pressure a couple of weeks before would have tuned him up for the big one in Portrush, and given him a chance to recharge the batteries before it too.

There has to be more to do this than focusing on winning majors, it's two fingers to somebody anyway. The fact that he decided to renege on his suggestion he would not renew his European tour card smacks of just wanting to be captain one day. As with everything with Rory, there seems to be an undercurrent of irritation/sulk in his actions, and it's not just enough to take the action, it has to make waves too. When he pulled out of the olympics he went one step further by saying he wouldn't bother watching, saying he'd rather watch proper events......like diving!

I've long since waived any bias towards him since he's from the same island as me, golf is a sport which allows for that to be overlooked anyway. Most people have a bias to their own, but after that they have their pet favourites and pet hates, mostly due to a playing style or personality.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to root for Rory these day though. He's not coming off as very likable. Not only does he seem to be distancing himself from this island, it seems increasingly that he is hellbent on becoming Feherty's heir.....Captain America! The American wife, living in the states, the accent, the faux love of American sports, best buddies with the likes of Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler, it all reeks of effort.

redmca2

The article in the Irish Independent by Roy Curtis is as close to moronic journalism as I have seen in a long time.



So OTT it is almost comical --- "To many it will feel like the most needless act of infidelity, willfully counter-intuitive and plain wrong"


The most needless act of infidelity???


Roy, please get a grip !!!

FixdePitchmark

that's an epic polemic ligerdub (lol)

But for me he gets a serious pass on the stuff he has done for the event over the last few years.

Paul speaking about it now.