Rory blows up after his flying start
ROrY MCILROY was bang on when he predicted a finalround shootout for the Northern Trust Open at riviera yesterday.
What no one could have forecast was that the Northern Irishman would spend most of it shooting himself in the foot.
What a stunning last- day collapse this was, and particularly given the outrageous way he began. McIlroy had finished his work the previous evening by holing a huge 20ft putt for par at the 18th and now he started in the same vein, following up a three wood tee shot and seven iron at the first by holing a similar length putt for a wonderful eagle three.
The 26-year-old was tied for the lead, and naturally the general expectation was for him to build on it and mark his first PGA Tour start of the season with a victory.
Except it didn’t work out that way, as McIlroy fell apart in uncharacteristic fashion after missing a short putt for par at the fourth. Two more bogeys at the sixth and seventh saw him lose concentration completely and undo all the good work from the first three days, as the unravelling continued into the back nine.
What made it worse was the fact his two Aussie playing partners, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman, were playing nicely to become part of the aforementioned shootout. McIlroy quickly became a nonfactor and the frustration he was feeling was all too obvious.
For 55 holes the Northern Irishman had putted beautifully, showing off all the improvements he believes he has made in that department. Now it looked as if the holes outside Los Angeles were covered in Sellotape.
At the 11th he missed from four feet for a par. Another bogey at the 12th was followed by another missed putt from short length at the 13th. Three dropped shots in a row therefore, and from being tied for the lead McIlroy had fallen all the way to a tie for 20th.
Putting his performance into stark perspective was the fact that, of the first 25 players on the leaderboard, he had the worst card to that point by three clear shots.
The only consolation was that he has plenty of tournament golf coming up to repair any damage to his confidence before his career grand slam tilt at the Masters in April.
Indeed, like the football team that welcomes a midweek game following a hammering at the weekend, he might be pleased now he has two events in a row in Florida, beginning with the Honda Classic on Thursday.
McIlroy won that event in 2012 to become world No 1 for the first time but it was also the scene of his infamous walk off the course after nine holes of his second round the following year, claiming dental problems.
As for the riviera shootout, it was American journeyman Jason Kokrak who had a target on his back with five holes to play. He had a two-shot lead over former champion Bubba Watson, Leishman, and veteran Korean KJ Choi, with Scott two back.