Sign of the times for Rory

THE day after revealing that Roy Keane once snubbed him for an autograph, Rory McIlroy had trouble getting the signature of someone rather closer to home. ‘Dad!’ he yelled in the direction of Gerry McIlroy, who was celebrating his 58th birthday by playing alongside his son. ‘You’ve forgotten to sign our card.’ It was one of those days for Rory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. He walked into breakfast at the Old Course hotel where Johann Rupert, the South African who runs this event like his own private tournament, told Rory he was being fined because he was wearing a cap. Amazing what you can get away with when you’re worth £5billion. Since they were playing in the same group, McIlroy promptly challenged him to ‘double or quits’ on the course. Rupert demanded 16 shots. Given Rory was playing so averagely on the front nine, he did well to take it to the 17th hole. ‘All in all, it hasn’t been a great day,’ said a smiling McIlroy. As he acknowledged, it’s not easy to make it your day if you start slowly and then are waiting around before playing every shot. Rounds in the interminable pro-am format took almost six hours, a kiss of death for a naturally rhythmic player like McIlroy. There was one moment of magic at the par-four 18th however, where his tee shot finished just eight feet from the hole. Naturally, on this day, he missed the putt. His 73 left him six shots behind pacesetters Nicolas Colsaerts from Belgium and Paul Dunne, back where, as an amateur, he led the 2015 Open after three rounds. ‘There’s obviously a lot of good memories but there’s a bit of what might have been in there as well,’ said the eloquent Irishman. Defending champion Tyrrell Hatton lies one shot behind after a 68, while Race to Dubai leader Tommy Fleetwood recovered from a poor start to post a 70.