Sinking feeling
Mcilroy hits ball in swimming pool in Poulter thrashing
‘It’s Rory. It doesn’t take a lot for Rory to spark up’
world No11 beaten 6&5 after bizarre out of bounds hsecond heaviest matchplay loss shows challenge for Cowen
When your ball finds water on a par four not featuring any lakes, rivers or creeks, you just know you have issues. So it was for Rory Mcilroy on the first day of the WGC Dell Match Play, where he drove out of bounds into a resident’s swimming pool on his way to a 6&5 dousing by Ian Poulter.
Back at his Rotherham academy, watching on TV, Pete Cowen, Mcilroy’s new coach, witnessed the full scale of his challenge to resurrect the form of the Northern Irishman in time for the Masters two weeks away. Let’s just say that when Mcilroy’s wild hook on the fifth bounced off a cart path over a fence and into the deep end – sunk below an inflatable, just metres from the underwater hoops – Cowen will have realised the task is Olympic-sized.
The “two-way miss” is certainly still at large despite Cowen’s intensive work with Mcilroy last week in Florida after the four-time majorwinner decided radical action was required and brought in the Yorkshireman over Michael Bannon, the County Down instructor who had overseen Mcilroy’s swing since he was eight.
There were a few pushes interspersed with the plethora of pulls at Austin Country Club and Mcilroy did look like a golfer unsure in which direction his ball would disappear next. His short game was better but also off key, with a three-putt from 14 feet on the fourth and a chip on to the green and across into the water on the decisive 13th. It was an ignominious beginning to the championship Mcilroy won six years ago and it is one that will always be remembered for that comical picture of his chlorinated Taylormade TP5X.
That particular aberration took Mcilroy three down, and although he came briefly up for air by pulling it back to one down through eight, Poulter clinically pushed him back under, reeling off six winning holes in succession to inflict the second biggest matchplay loss of his professional career on the world No11.
Credit to Poulter, the 45-year-old who is also a previous WGC Match Play champion. He was excellent, with six birdies and an eagle in those 13 holes. The highlight was a fouriron from 259 yards to six feet on the par-five 12th. When a golf superstar is feeling vulnerable, the last thing he needs is Poulter on his case, particularly in the format he adores. “I like the s--- or bust attitude of matchplay,” Poulter said. “It gets the adrenalin going, the ticker motoring, and you’ve got to suck it up and hit the shots. This is a course where you’re going to make mistakes, there are hazards everywhere, with tricky pin positions, and you have to keep the foot down. I had to do that against Rory.”
Poulter is a close friend of Mcilroy’s and is another Cowen client. “Obviously, Pete’s going to be working exclusively with Rory on his game,” he said. “I think there are a couple of areas of his game which I’m sure he wants to firm up. But it’s Rory. It doesn’t take a lot for Rory to spark up.” Sir Nick Faldo also welcomed Mcilroy’s switch. “I think it’ll be good for him – new eyes, new thoughts, paint some new pictures, different types of practice routines,” Faldo told Telegraph Sport. “It’s in his body rotation – he’s just got to get his shoulders on plane again. The body guides your arms and occasionally it looks like Rory’s arms are trying to guide his body.”
Mcilroy is not yet done in Texas but will have to avoid defeat against the young American Lanto Griffin to offer himself any hope of progressing. Griffin lost on the last to Cameron Smith, with the Australian’s clash with Poulter looking the group decider.