World Champ wins will be Trump card
JOHN HIGGINS reckons winning machine Judd Trump will be desperate to mop up more World Championships to be considered a true great.
The Scot beat Trump in the Crucible showpiece in 2011 before the Juddernaut took revenge in 2019.
Runaway world No.1 Trump matched triple world champion Mark Williams on 22 ranking crowns, joint fifth on the all-time list, when he defended his Gibraltar Open title last week.
But the Wizard of Wishaw, a winner of 31 ranking events, said: “What Judd’s done is incredible.
“He probably wants to
SNOOKER win more world titles, Masters and things like that because that’s what all the top players over the years have done.
“I didn’t think anyone could do what he’s done in this era. The standard’s so high now, I’m not one of those who says it was better 20 years ago. It’s so tough to win tournaments now.”
Trump has now won a remarkable 14 ranking titles and the iconic Masters invitational event in the last 28 months.
And he’s the firm favourite to land a second world crown at the sport’s spiritual Sheffield home next month.
RORY McILROY admits his game is in a mess a month out from the Masters after hooking his way to a horror 79 at Sawgrass.
The world No.11 limped home with a final-round 76 in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill on Sunday.
And right from pulling his opening tee shot on his way to a double-bogey six, the Northern Irishman suffered a nightmare start to the defence of the Players Championship crown he won here in 2019.
The low point was a quadruple-bogey eight on the 18th – he started on the back nine – when he twice found water down the left for a snowman in the Florida sun. McIlroy finished with a three-putt bogey to sit 14 shots behind playing partner and clubhouse leader Sergio Garcia. It matched the highest opening round of a defending champion at TPC Sawgrass, set by Scot Sandy Lyle in 1988. The 31-year-old had insisted only this week that his “best days are ahead of me”. But yesterday his two-way miss saw his ball off to the right and especially to the left of him. McIlroy said: “It was very hard to recover from that start, especially when you’re trying to figure it out as you go along on course, right?. “You’re trying to figure it out but you still know you’re not really sure where the shots are coming from. It’s hard to at least try to
POLAR OPPOSITES Rory with Sergio, right eliminate one side of the golf course basically.
“On 18, I just hit a drive that started 10 yards left of where I was aiming and went on the wind. I did the same thing with the four-iron.
“Regardless, if you take that 18th hole out, it still wasn’t a very good day.”
This will now be 25 events without a win since November 2019 and the four-time Major winner is running out of time to find his old form before his latest bid to complete a career Grand Slam at Augusta National, starting on April 8.
His former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley said: “It is a really, really poor performance from Rory. Every facet of his game is off.
“I would question his scheduling. There is a staleness about him. There is no excitement.”
And his fellow Sky Sports analyst Rich Beem said: “I think he has got to quit analysing everything he is doing out there, go back to the simple things and get the ball in the hole.”
Garcia, the champion in 2008, leads the pack after a 65 that featured two eagle threes and said: “I just love it here.”
Scots Russell Knox and Robert MacIntyre shot 71 and 74 respectively.
Justin Rose pulled out before the start because of “personal medical reasons” and was replaced by US Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker.
Elsewhere, David Law produced an equal career-low 64 thanks to former double Doha champion and now manager, Paul Lawrie, in muscling his way to the front on day one of the Qatar Masters on the European Tour.
Law, 29, birdied his opening three holes in a haul of eight birdies and no bogeys on the Jose Maria Olazabal designed Education City layout.
Law returned to the Qatar capital having missed the cut in his prior two appearances, while his showing makes a mockery of his 986th world ranking.
Scott Jamieson signed for a four-under 68. Richie Ramsay and Connor Syme are two under, with David Drysdale and Stephen Gallacher one under.
PAUL McGINLEY ON McILROY