DADS & LADS
Rory plays happy families and cleanses his soul
RORY McILROY is treating the opportunity to play with his dad, Gerry, at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship as a brief window to cleanse the soul after all the bad blood of the LIV schism.
The world No 2 has been an outspoken defender of the golf establishment in the spat with the Saudi-backed breakaway league — and he was happy to fire off a few more volleys in their direction yesterday.
But sharing the St Andrews stage with his father in practice yesterday ahead of the three-venue tournament allowed Rory (inset) a precious moment to pull back from the barricades.
Nice
“Playing with your father is a pure form of the game. It’s sort of reminding myself where I started, playing at the golf club with him and all that sort of stuff.
That’s the real nice thing about this week,” said McIlroy. “We’ve had the opportunity to play here a number of times. We have played golf pretty much all over the world together — it’s one of the great things about this game that we can do that. “The focus is trying to get us over the line, so we can play here again on Sunday. Try to make the cut, play the Old Course again one more time. “St Andrews and tradition and where the game was created and where it was built — that’s golf at the end of the day. It’s bigger than all this crap we’ve talked about all year.”
Asked if he would swap the individual title and its €871,590 cheque on Sunday night for the team prize worth €50,280, McIlroy did not hesitate. “I would,” he declared. (from left)
Jimmy Dunne, Gerry, Rory and Danny Willett
McIlroy, who finished third at the St Andrews Open in July, starts out at Carnoustie with his father this morning alongside Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard and his partner, Arab billionaire Abdullah Al Naboodah.
Handful
Half an hour behind will be US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, who will be playing with his 21-handicap mum Sue and Matt Wallace, who will be partnered by Hollywood actress Kathryn Newton.
With a handful of LIV rebels also in the field, the whiff of controversy is never far away.
The latest battleground is their fight for rankings’ (right) (left)
recognition. With rankings largely determining participation in the Majors and theirs on the slide because of their exclusion from the PGA Tour, every rebel has signed a letter to Official World Golf Rankings demanding LIV’s inclusion.
McIlroy has little sympathy. “The only ones that are prohibiting them from getting world rankings points are themselves,” he said.
“They knew the risks going in, and actions have consequences.
“That was a risk that they were paid for, ultimately. If some of these guys that don’t have exemptions in the Majors don’t qualify for them, I have no problem with that because they knew that going in.”