European Tour must play the tough guy
As a place to play golf in January, the Plantation Course at Kapalua, framed by serrated lava formations and the rolling Pacific surf, might just have the edge on, say, 18 gloomy holes of preferred lies on the outskirts of Belfast.
Rory McIlroy knew it, too, as he kicked back in his easy chair at this week’s Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, offering a hymn to the comfort of wealthy American living.
“I have an American wife, I live in the US,” he said.
“Honestly, I enjoy it here more. The way of life is easier. The weather, the convenience.”
To which the default response of anyone back home, schlepping through a filthy morning round in thermals and galoshes, must be: Well, stay there, then. That is precisely what McIlroy intends to do.
For the next 12 months, he will adopt an unashamedly starspangled schedule, committing to only two events on this side of the Atlantic, even though he has to play at least four simply to retain his tour card.
The one problem with this position is that every couple of years, McIlroy turns up dressed head to toe in blue and gold, beats his chest and conducts delirious Ryder Cup galleries in a chorus of “Yoo-rup!”
For one week only, he embraces the spirit of European unity as passionately as Jean-Claude Juncker. Yet, in the intervening period, he appears to want nothing to do with the place.
It is time, to be blunt, for the European Tour to start acting tough on McIlroy.
It is not unreasonable to expect him to show a certain minimum loyalty to the tour that helped to make him a superstar.
Somehow, the usual rules of allegiance are suspended when it comes to golf. In rugby, New Zealand do not permit any players plying their club trade abroad to don the All Blacks jersey.
Colin Montgomerie, in recalling his emotions after leading Europe to victory at Celtic Manor, said he dwelt deeply on what it meant for the tour.
One can hardly imagine McIlroy and his contemporaries having the same thought process. Many of them care so little about the tour that they can scarcely be bothered keeping their membership.
While the tour’s CEO Keith Pelley has moved the organisation on by light years from predecessor George O’Grady, vibrantly revamping it for the digital age, he has yet to staunch the transatlantic talent drain.
It is not as if the European Tour is asking much of McIlroy. In 2019, the FedEx Cup play-offs are due to end in August, which leaves him more than three months to satisfy the requisite number of appearances.
So far, Pelley has approached the McIlroy situation delicately, meeting him for lunch in Northern Ireland in December in an effort to change his mind.
But if silver-service diplomacy does not work, he should deliver an ultimatum: show the tour some respect or forfeit your Ryder Cup place. – The Daily Telegraph