Willett free from Masters mayhem
DANNY WILLETT believes it is time to put his Masters triumph out of his mind and focus on making further additions to his trophy cabinet.
Willett has endured a mixed campaign since claiming his first Major title in April, missing the cut in three of his seven events and recording a sole top-20 finish in the BMW PGA Championship after sharing the halfway lead.
The 28-year-old also snapped the putter he used to win the Masters in frustration during the US Open and finished 53rd in the Open at Royal Troon, 27 shots behind winner Henrik Stenson.
Victory at Augusta led to off-course opportunities for the world No 9, who was invited to wear his green jacket in the Royal Box at Wimbledon and threw the ceremonial first pitch at a New York Yankees game on Sunday.
But asked ahead of this week’s USPGA Championship if the “Masters madness” was finally over, Willett said: “I’d have thought so. It’s a long time ago.
“There’s been two Majors since, two other winners, and this is now the last Major of the year with a lot of guys trying to play well and win that final one, the guys who haven’t had one this year. And the guys that have one, maybe they will be trying to get two under the belt.
“It’s settled down a bit now and I’m trying to get back down to work and knuckle down because I have got a very important second half of the season coming up.
“It’s time to move on from what I did in April. It was fantastic and yeah, it’s changed my life, but I need to get back to the kind of form I took into that week and hopefully move forward.” Willett is already guaranteed to make his Ryder Cup debut at Hazeltine in September and will also contest the Olympics in Rio as golf returns to the Games for the first time since 1904. Yet despite hoping to learn what he can from the other British athletes in Brazil, he has no plans to switch sports after his successful baseball debut at the weekend. “No, I’m not going to do a Jordan on you,” Willett joked in reference to basketball star Michael Jordan attempting to become a professional baseball player. “It was a great day, an honour to be asked to go. “To be able to go out there in front of quite a few thousand and not mess up too bad was pretty good. I didn’t throw it five yards, I didn’t hit somebody in the first row, so I think I did all right.” Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, feels he can join two of the greats in Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead by lifting a third USPGA crown.
McIlroy, who won it in 2012 and 2014, returns to competition after sharing fifth place in the Open and believes this could be his best shot of winning a career fifth Major.
“The best I feel I could have finished at The Open was third and I never envisaged, even with good conditions, I could get to 17 under par so if third was the best I could have done, then fifth was OK,” said McIlroy.
“I felt I played pretty well all week and I handled the conditions well so coming to courses like Baltusrol it is more my type of golf and I feel like I can really do well this week.
“I’ve had some good practice sessions while I worked hard last week with my coach, Michael Bannon, and I’m very comfortable with every aspect of my game.
“So when you combine that with the layout of the course here I feel this is my best chance to win a Major.”