3/06/2013

Rory Trumps Up No Excuses


"I'd give myself a red card for last week," McIlroy joked, citing Manchester United's loss a day earlier, as he opened his press conference Wednesday at Trump Doral.

When the topic turned to McIlroy's decision to walk off the golf course mid-round five days ago at The Honda Classic, he was apologetic.

"It was a mistake," McIlroy said. "Everyone makes mistakes. I'm learning from them. Some people have the pleasure of making their mistakes in private. Most of my mistakes are in the public eye."

McIlroy issued a statement after withdrawing last Friday that said he was suffering from a toothache. He reiterated Wednesday the statement was true, but he also said his mental state was not good.

"I wasn't in a good place with my golf game, my head was all over the place," McIlroy said. "I realized pretty quickly that it wasn't the right thing to do. No matter how bad I was playing, I should have stayed out there.

"There's no excuse for quitting. I let a lot of people down and for that I'm sorry."

McIlroy was open and honest throughout his press conference, which played to a packed interview room at the Trump Doral Resort and Spa and lasted a little over a half hour.

The 23-year-old World No. 1 also addressed was his switch to Nike, saying his swing is the problem, not his equipment.

McIlroy spent the weekend working on the latter at The Bear's Club under the watchful eye of his instructor Michael Bannon.

"I know it's purely the swing," McIlroy said. "The equipment is fantastic. When I make a good swing it does exactly what I want."

He also addressed rumours that he and tennis playing girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki had broken up, which some had speculated was at the root of his problems.

"Just because I have a bad day on the golf course, and Caroline loses a match, does not mean we are breaking up," he said.

McIlroy will tee off at 11:53 a.m. ET on Thursday with Tiger Woods and Luke Donald.

"I've got to remember I started to play golf because I love it, I really do," McIlroy said. "I've got four rounds, thankfully. I haven't been enjoying it because I've been putting so much pressure on myself. I have to go out there and enjoy myself."



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Lowry Eyes Puerto Rico Open

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Shane Lowry burst onto the scene two weeks ago when he upset world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and Carl Pettersson to advance to the third round of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

This week, Lowry tees it up  at the Puerto Rico Open presented by seepuertorico.com. He hopes that there are many more TOUR starts to come.

“I want to play on the PGA TOUR as much as I can,” said Lowry, who plans to stay in the U.S. until May. 

“I spoke to Conor, my manager, maybe six weeks ago and said, I knew this was opposite the Cadillac, so I said to him, ‘Any chance we can get an invite there?’ and we were lucky enough that we did get an invite. Very grateful for that and hopefully I can make the most of it this week.”

He knows that a top-10 finish this week gets him into next week’s Tampa Bay Championship presented by EverBank. As one of nine top-100 ranked players in this week’s field, he will have his chances to do just that.

“Yeah, obviously a top 10 would be great to get into next week,” Lowry said. “I really want to play here as much as I can, so if I can top 10, as I said, just focus on one thing and that's the first round on Thursday, try and shoot a good couple of scores, get me in contention, come Saturday afternoon and Sunday, you never know.”

Lowry, with a little more success, could be a candidate to join the PGA TOUR for the 2013-14 season. 

He’s earned 68 Non-Member FedExCup points thus far, and if his non-member points exceed those of No. 200 on the final FedExCup standings, he’ll earn a spot in this year’s Web.com Tour finals. The average amount of points needed to reach that number since 2009 is 88. He could exceed that mark with a top-30 finish this week.


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Els Regrets Being Rory Easy

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Ernie Els has admitted he regrets not having done more to try and prevent Rory McIlroy's walk-off at last week's Honda Championship.

McIlroy, the defending champion, withdrew from the tournament in Palm Beach midway through his second round, initially saying he was "in a bad place mentally", before later citing a painful wisdom tooth.

The USPGA champion was playing with Mark Wilson and Els at the time and the South African has acknowledged he now wishes he had said something to McIlroy when the 23-year-old opted to quit on the 18th hole at PGA National.

"No, we didn't quite talk to him. But I must say, when I shook his hand on 18, I wanted to say something to him, but I didn't, and I kind of regret that," Els told reporters ahead of this week's WGC-Cadillac Championship.

"It was definitely obviously a heat of the moment thing. He is who he is. You've got to respect what the individual at that moment is like, and he wanted to get off. And we obviously heard that he had his wisdom tooth was bothering him, and if that was the reason, that was that.

"I would have been out of my depth at that stage to say something to him if something was bothering him. So I didn't, but I thought I should have."

Els had been openly critical of McIlroy's decision to quit, before later learning of his toothache problems, but has now insisted the youngster should not be judged too harshly.

The reigning Open champion revealed he had seen McIlroy working hard on his game over the weekend and believes the furore will soon be forgotten once the World No 1 rediscovers some form.

"I saw him at The Bear's Club (Jack Nickluas' private golf club in Florida) over the weekend. He was practicing his tail off," Els added. "He was there right through the whole day, even yesterday we played at Seminole, he was out there in the afternoon.

"So he's obviously working hard at his game. We did talk a little bit in private. We'll see what he says, you know. I played with him Thursday, Friday, so we'll see what he says tomorrow.

"Listen, I was also 22, 23; I'm 43 now. I look back, I did a lot of silly things and what he's done is nothing compared to what I did; speak to my parents.

"But when it comes to being where he's at, you've got to maybe think a little bit more than two minutes. You know, in a couple of years' time, he won't even think about this or talk about this. If he wins this week, it will be the last thing we talk about, it will be history and that's what it should be. It's something that's happened and we should move on from that.

"He's a great kid, he's a great player and if he admits he's made a mistake, then that's that and let's move on."


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Blue Monster Pairs Rory and Tiger

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Rory McIlroy starts this week's WGC-Cadillac Championship paired with Tiger Woods and Luke Donald for the first two rounds.

Woods finished tied for 37th at the Honda Classic, and so far this season has won the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California. Albeit he missed the cut in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and was eliminated in the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

McIlroy, also missed the cut at Abu Dhabi and lost the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship to compatriot Shane Lowry. His most recent victory came last  November at the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai.

Donald finished imn share of 16th at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera and was beatebn in the second round of the Match Play Championship. 

Luke last won in May at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, England.

Graeme McDowell plays with Sergio Garcia and Webb Simpson.

With Padraig Harrington teeing off with Martin Kaymer and Jim Furyk.

No. 1 tee
11:20 a.m.: Mike Hendry, Brian Gay (12:26 p.m.)
11:31 a.m.: Robert Garrigus, Thawork Wiratchant, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (12:37 p.m.)
11:42 a.m.: Branden Grace, Francesco Molinari, Ryan Moore (12:48 p.m.)
11:53 a.m.: Bill Haas, Scott Jamieson, Tim Clark (12:59 p.m.)
12:04 p.m.: John Merrick, Freddie Jacobson, Paul Lawrie (1:10 p.m.)
12:15 p.m.: Jason Day, Jamie Donaldson, Nicolas Colsaerts (11:20 a.m.)
12:26 p.m.: Dustin Johnson, Hunter Mahan, Peter Hanson (11:31 a.m.)
12:37 p.m.: Webb Simpson, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell (11:42 a.m.)
12:48 p.m.: Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker (11:53 a.m.)
12:59 p.m.: Justin Rose, Louis Oosthuizen, Adam Scott (12:04 p.m.)
1:10 a.m.: Jim Furyk, Martin Kaymer, Padraig Harrington (12:15 p.m.)

No. 10 tee
11:20 a.m.: Rickie Fowler, Thorbjorn Olesen, Mateo Manassero (12:26 p.m.)
11:31 a.m.: Charl Schwartzel, Keegan Bradley, Jason Dufner (12:37 p.m.)
11:42 a.m.: Matt Kuchar, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter (12:48 p.m.)
11:53 a.m.: Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Luke Donald (12:59 p.m.)
12:04 p.m.: Nick Watney, Ernie Els, Bo Van Pelt (1:10 p.m.)
12:15 p.m.: Marcus Fraser, Marcel Siem, Russell Henley (11:20 a.m.)
12:26 p.m.: Rafael Cabrera Bello, John Huh, John Senden (11:31 a.m.)
12:37 p.m.: Carl Pettersson, Scott Piercy, Geoff Ogilvy (11:42 a.m.)
12:48 p.m.: Charles Howell III, George Coetzee, David Lynn (11:53 a.m.)
12:59 p.m.: Michael Thompson, Chris Wood, Stephen Gallacher (12:04 p.m.)
1:10 p.m.: Zach Johnson, Alexander Noren, Richard Sterne (12:15 p.m.)


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