Fisher still dreaming of matching Rory’s glory
A TWEET from Rory McIlroy to his 2.7million followers last week jogged the memories of lots of golfers and left just as many scratching their heads, wondering about the man who had just completed a practice round with the Northern Irishman.
‘Great to play 18 this morning with my mate Oli Fisher,’ tweeted Rory. ‘Birdied the last to beat me one up, dinner’s on me.’
It brought back reminders of their glorious amateur days, when the pair fought for supremacy at the top of the UK game.
‘If anything, Oli was always a yard ahead of me,’ McIIroy recalled to Sportsmail.
Ten years later, there’s 376 world ranking spots, 18 tournament victories and about £40million in career earnings between them.
So what did happen to the Essex boy who was expected to become a Rory- like star rather than his current status as a chorus-line member of the European Tour?
‘Having got my card at the age of 18 it’s fair to say I had very different expectations to what I have achieved,’ admitted Fisher, who has a sole tour victory to his name.
‘There have been times when I’ve really struggled. You quickly realise there’s an awful lot more goes into doing well out here than simply hitting the ball. It took me a while to get to grips with all that’s involved in becoming a good player.
‘It was great catching up with Rory and then playing with him in the third round. The obvious difference between us now is his consistency but the thing I most admire about him is his perspective. He’ll have bad rounds or even bad tournaments but he’ll get on with his life and then come out the next week and win.
‘There were times when I was way too hard on myself, always looking to change things in the search for perfection and it only made things worse. But I’m different now. The way I look at it is I’m still only 27, with all this experience and my career in front of me.’
McIlroy agrees the gap might not be so large in another year or two. ‘You look at Oli’s game and he has all the shots,’ he told me. ‘If he just had a little more belief and stopped being so hard on himself and getting in his own way, who knows what he might achieve. But we’ve all been there, beating ourselves up.’
This week, McIlroy has retreated to his Florida mansion in advance of his build-up to the Masters. Fisher is in South Africa, playing in something called the Tshwane Open.
‘At the end of the day, I’m still playing with the best players on the European Tour and I feel like I’ve got an awful lot to look forward to,’ said Fisher. ‘The most important thing is where I want to go, not what’s in the past.
‘This is a great time on tour, with all the exciting English talents around and I definitely want to be part of that conversation. As for Rory, who knows? I’ve not given up hope of a battle or two in the future.’