Geezers On Rory: Adapt Or You Won't Win
Most of the Euro Tour beat writers remain reluctant to question the long term future of Rory McIlroy in the Open Championship after he wrote it off Sunday, but as Karl MacGinty Brian Creighton reports several old geezers saw Rory McIlroy's comments about the Open and believe he needs to change his attitude. Nick Price was the toughest:
“He had better get out there and start liking those courses and figuring out a way to play them. And if he's a good enough player, he will do that.
“He may not like it as much but he will learn. I guarantee you, he will learn to play and enjoy it on links courses.”
Ian Woosnam was the most erudite. And I bet you never thought you'd see his name and that word in the same sentence!
“He's only a young kid. He's going to say the wrong thing again and again. He's probably thinking ‘What the hell have I said?'“ Woosnam commented on the US Open champion.
“But if he wants to win the Open he's going to have to adapt. Tiger has adapted, Nicklaus adapted. Palmer, they all adapted.
“He needs to adapt to it. It's not changing your game. It's changing the way you think. All you have to do is move the ball back a couple of inches in your stance and take a club or even two clubs more to play. It's called control.”
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 08:47 PM
Reader Comments (6)
Imagine how good he could be if he ever learned to put the ball back in his stance and learned to "control" it. Is Ian Woosnam for real?
However, I am getting a little bit fed up of folk making excuses for Rory. I simply don't accept that he wasn't aware the impact the "I'm not changing my game for one week" would have on british public psyche. It was extremely disrespectful to our Open Championship. He's done enough interviews now to know that venting his bile where it was least deserved is not going to win him any friends over here if he carries on like that.
Thanks for the info. I know he shot 63 at TOC as well last year at the Open and the weather conditions may have been milder as well. But the main thing is - this kid knows how to play links golf - he knows how to play any kind of golf. He just doesn't seem to like to play in the rain and cold and wind all together. I'm the same way. It seemed to me that he was just honest in saying he preferred good weather. In one of my other interest areas, I have climbed mountains in driving snow/ice/howling wind, and I have also climbed them under beautiful clear glorious skies. Without question, I certainly prefer the latter!
Rory will probably figure it out. The better player should be able to increase their margin vs the field in adverse conditions. Jack had it figured out for sure, look at his run in the British Open. 3 wins 7 times runner-up, 3 -3rds, only out of the top 10 twice in 20 years, never worse than 5th in the 70's. Had a 15 year run where he was never worse than 6th...
I am pwned as usual! However, after reading all the comments on the other thread about Angelo not showing up fully prepared all the time with Jack one wonders how many of the seconds in majors would have been firsts with a more "involved" caddie....
Since I deal with college kids on a daily basis, I generally realize they all say dumb things, just like us older farts. Rory's only 22 or so, and I expect he will eventually evolve (devolve?) into a player who thinks about everything he says for 15 seconds before he says it, just to make sure no one is offended. Too bad. Jim Rome on his sports radio show has a great edited quote from Tiger that he plays frequently.... "the course... looks.. good. I feel.. good.. I... like my chances..." over and over again robotically. I sure hope the kid doesn't turn into that.