McIlroy almost a Buccaneer
There was a time when Rory McIlroy contemplated coming to America for college. Graeme McDowell went to AlabamaBirmingham. Colin Montgomerie was at Houston Baptist. Adam Scott spent one semester at UNLV.
McIlroy was lined up to play for the Buccaneers of East Tennessee State.
“I signed a letter-of-intent to play for ETSU, did my SAT, did everything like that, so I was fully ready to come over and play college golf,” McIlroy said last week at the Frys.com Open. “But at that point, I knew that I really wanted to turn pro earlier. I had no intention of graduating at all, so I thought it was just better to play amateur golf.”
It worked out for him. He played in the Walker Cup, turned pro and effectively wrapped up his European Tour card in his second start as a pro.
“By the time I was probably just getting out of college, I had just won my first major,” he said. “It was a good decision in the end.”
McIlroy didn’t mention who else recruited him out of Northern Ireland.
“I wasn’t that good back then,” he said.
It’s all showbiz
Harry Caray had a cheat sheet — and yet he still mispronounced the names of Chicago Cubs players.
So says Steve Stone, who for 14 seasons served as the color commentator alongside Caray, the legendary Cubs’ play-by-play announcer. Stone talked about the widespread notion that his fellow broadcaster was as error-prone as the once-forlorn Cubs.
Trying to help out, Stone said he took Caray’s score book and phonetically spelled out names of Cubs players such as catcher Hector Villanueva. And then in the first inning of Villanueva’s debut, Stone said, he watched Caray pronounce the catcher’s name seven different ways — none properly.
“He knew if he stumbled over the names, it was funny,’’ Stone told USA Today. “Everybody would say, ‘Well, that’s just Harry.’ And they would tune in to see which name he was going to mangle next.”
Ad man
Denver Broncos running back Ronnie Hillman took to Twitter to chastise “fake fans” who have been critical of quarterback Peyton Manning’s inconsistent play.
Wrote Reggies Hayes of The News-Sentinel of Fort Wayne, Ind.: “Real fans, meanwhile, took a stand by increasing their Nationwide coverage and buying more Papa John’s pizza.”
Runner-up?
Stanford tailback Christian McCaffrey is now in the Heisman Trophy conversation after gaining 369 all-purpose yards, tops in the FBS this season, against UCLA.
Wrote Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: “If this keeps up, McCaffrey may get a trip to New York to watch LSU’s Leonard Fournette accept the award.”
Sputtering offense
Paul Klee of the Colorado Springs Gazette, after the Broncos went 27 consecutive drives without an offensive touchdown: “What once was a Ferrari is now a Zamboni on grass.”