Diamond makes cut as McIlroy plans busy path to the Masters
There’s more to all of us than meets the eye. Mulligan also has another hat, that of proprietor of Mulligan’s bar in Cookstown, and he travels home regularly. But still he keeps his Fulham clubmates up to speed with his workouts and runs in their WhatsApp group, setting the tone for the younger generation at the ripe age of 36.
McCartan and Mulligan (left) faced each other in the 2003 Ulster final, the day that Brian McGuigan made a meal of a ball that McCartan flung at him which earned the Down man a red card.
Together, they are back in the closing stages of an All-Ireland bid. But no English-based team have ever beaten their Irish counterparts, the closest shave being Sean McDermotts of Birmingham coming to within a point of Roscommon Gaels in 1975.
So how do you sell it to the players?
“We took a week off. When we started back again we said that we had created a wee bit of history. We got into the history books and we would always say we won it,” recalled McCartan.
“So what do we do now? Do we stand back and train one night a week, mess around and wait for Corofin or whoever to give us a tanking and put us to the sword right away? I said I wouldn’t want to be a part of that.
“It is an opportunity of a lifetime to go and play a team — a top, top team — and give it a rattle.”
All year long he has provided strong guidance. The club have strong Galbally connections with Mickey Murphy the captain and Mickey Donaghy a selector, and throughout the year Paddy Tally has been dropping in to take a few sessions.
Fulham actually came over a couple of weeks ago and played Tally’s St Mary’s Sigerson Cup champions and have lined out against the London county team in preparation for this weekend.
What McCartan — a man who won medals in Down, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia — knew all along is that it doesn’t matter what level you compete at, it’s the competing that matters.
“It’s the level you aspire to,” he reasoned.
“If you can win something at the level you are at, sure you could play in an All-Ireland or play in a cup that people mightn’t even watch, that means just as much to them.
“To me it’s all relative. If you win something, and you win it with your mates, what more could you want?” RORY McIlroy plans to continue with Harry Diamond on his bag and play an unprecedented eight events before bidding to complete the career Grand Slam at the Masters.
Sources close to the four-time Major winner confirmed yesterday that the most lucrative bag in golf will remain with McIlroy’s childhood pal, who took over from JP Fitzgerald in August.
The Ulsterman (28) has been working on his fitness since he downed tools after his first winless campaign since 2008 eight weeks ago. He hasn’t won a Major since he claimed the fourth of his Grand Slam titles at the 2014 US PGA but, with the Masters remaining his big goal, he plans to play an unprecedented eight times before teeing it up at Augusta National on April 5.
McIlroy released his early 2018 schedule yesterday and plans to play the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship (Jan 18-21) and the Omega Dubai Desert Classic (Jan 25-28) before the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for the first time.
He then plays the Genesis Open in Los Angeles and the Honda Classic in Florida but will skip the following week’s WGC-Mexico Championship before returning for his debut in the Valspar Championship (March 8-11).
The World No.10 will then play the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin for his busiest start since his seven event build-up for the 2016 Masters.
“It’s about trying to gain an advantage,” said McIlroy, who played just four times before the Masters this year after suffering a stress fracture to his ribs in January. “I’m making sure I’m not leaving any stone unturned and doing all I can to get back to being the best in the world.”