Mcilroy bounces back from horror show with a 69
Rory Mcilroy bounced back from last week’s first missed cut in two years with a first-round 69 to put himself into contention at the WGC Workday Championship.
The Northern Irishman rued four skewed putts of seven feet or less, but that stat only shows how adeptly he played tee to green. And after last week’s horror show in the Hollywood hills – where he fell short of the weekend by an outrageous seven shots – this was a most welcome improvement with the Masters but six weeks’ away.
What will have especially pleased the 31-year-old with his three-under beginning at the Concession course was the transformation in his long game. He is three back from leaders England’s Matt Fitzpatrick and world No9 Webb Simpson.
“The club was getting behind me on the way back,” Mcilroy said. “I hit pulls or these sort of spinny cuts, which isn’t like me. If anything, I’m usually the other way and the club shallows too much and I get stuck. So it’s a different pattern for me to try to work with and tease back into the right positions.”
Mcilroy provided evidence with his second shot when he span in a 125-yard wedge from a fairway bunker to two feet. He holed a 12-footer on the second (his 11th) and then a 10-footer on the seventh (his 16th), but his trail of erroneous par putts and wasted birdie opportunities left him “frustrated”. Mcilroy’s penultimate hole summed it up. A 305-yard drive, a 130-yard approach and then a yanked six-footer.
I enjoyed James Corrigan’s article about Humphrey Cobbold’s attack on activities that might threaten his livelihood as “rich people’s sports” (Feb 24). As Corrigan rightly says, tennis can be extremely cheap to play and can play a significant role in improving the physical and mental health of the nation over the coming months.
The truth about sports such as tennis and golf is far more nuanced than Cobbold implies. It is perfectly possible to play either on a low budget, but there are also expensive high-profile venues where wealthy people play. Both are games that can offer enjoyment and health benefits to anyone who wishes to participate, and it is perhaps a lack of recognition of this fact that has led the Government to ban them for so long.
What is nonetheless true is that to play at the top level, talent and dedication need to be supplemented by substantial funding, which is why most of our leading players come from what might be described as “middle-class” backgrounds. So, perhaps they are not the sports that are going to produce working-class heroes, but they are going to be crucial in rebuilding health and well-being for many ordinary people. It is not a good look for a prominent figure in the leisure industry to appear to disparage important types of physical activity.
Kevin Leck, Loughborough, Leics