Has Rory lost his roar?  I certainly hope not, but he’s definitely suffering from a touch of laryngitis at the moment.

His inability to close out the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday was a definite low point, not just for the likeable Irishman, but for his legions of supporters as well.  Being a Rory fan is not for the faint-hearted.  It requires treading a bumpy road littered with sublime shots that no one else (and I mean no one else) in the world can play but it also involves open-mouthed disbelief at the wide misses that occur when it matters most.  It’s like living with an irregular heartbeat – the constant, nagging feeling that something is always just lurking in the shadows to derail you.

Way back in 2009 Rory recorded his first professional win here, at this same Emirates Golf Club.  Well, I can’t really describe the course as the “same”, seeing as all the greens have recently been relaid and improved.  Rory himself has morphed into a different version of himself.  No longer the slightly full-faced youngster with an uncontrollable mop of curly hair and a swagger that oozed self-confidence, he is now a husband, a dad and a chiselled athlete without even a pinch of body fat.  He has dependents now, responsibilities and other priorities that come to us all as we grow up but they seem to have stolen the seemingly carefree attitude and joie de vivre that was the hallmark of his game and made him so watchable – and so unbeatable.

Four majors by the age of 25 raised everyone’s expectations.  Was it unreasonable to expect that that rate of success would continue?  Perhaps.  Anyone who follows sport knows all about the peaks-and-troughs syndrome and that nothing lasts for ever – not even the success of Manchester United in the Fergie era.  Rory’s sublime skills are still there – we have seen plenty of evidence of that – but I detect, dare I say it, a trait in his play that wasn’t present in his early years.  He’s a reader, a deep thinker, a student of the game but it’s as if he is trying to do everything TOO perfectly and it has put him in a bit of an emotional and mental straitjacket that can inhibit his best work when he most wants it.

Rory failed to win in Dubai because he was unsettled, unclear in his thinking.  Winning is not easy and he had to wait on virtually every single shot, which is very wearing for a quick player such as McIlroy.  He’s no stranger to waiting but on this occasion it started to rattle him.  He was annoyed when a photographer clicked too early on his second shot into the 16th and two audible obscenities (very un-Rory like) in the last two holes were an indication as to his scrambled brains.

Needing a birdie at the last to win the tournament I don’t believe he chose the wrong shot in not electing to lay up short of the water.  He chose the wrong shot once he had pulled the 3-wood out of the bag.  There was only one place not to go – the water.  Anywhere over the back of the green or into the drop zone via the grandstand would have given him a 50/50 chance of a lie that would have let him get up and down for the win.  At worst he would have been in the play-off.  It was arguably the easiest route to the winning birdie for him given the front flag position.

Rory, being Rory, however, and because he is so talented, was too greedy.  He aimed left but tried to fade it in towards the pin.  He didn’t need to do that at that juncture.  It was as if he was playing the shot that everyone would expect Rory McIlroy to play.  Mistake.  Only Rory knew how he was really feeling inside but he certainly wasn’t exuding confidence.  When the heat was on Rory took 10 blows to cover the final two holes, with Richard Bland and Viktor Hovland, the two players making the play-off, scoring 7 and 6 shots respectively.

Rory beat himself in Dubai.  I can’t ever recall anyone saying that about Tiger Woods.  Tiger didn’t always have his A game but you had to pull out all the stops to beat him.  At the moment Rory is giving his opposition a bit of a helping hand.  Sure, there are always some equipment wrinkles to work out this early in the season and pros will constantly work on their technique but I can’t help but feel that Rory has misplaced that unfettered, inner calm that in the past has allowed him to make those sound decisions that lead to aggressive, fearless execution of his shots.  He needs to tap into that mindset again in order to win more majors.

No majors for more than seven years means we have been starved for too long of a Rory in full flow when it matters most.  Time, perhaps, to play as he did when a kid at Holywood golf club with his dad.  Rory has the recipe for success already, all the ingredients required – of that there is no doubt.  He’s just mislaid the bit that tells you what temperature to put the oven at and how long the cooking takes.

Here’s hoping he finds the missing bit of that recipe soon.

It would be remiss of me not to start this week’s blog with a heartfelt thank you to all who got in touch with their best wishes and advice as to how to get over a bad dose of the dreaded Covid.  I am so much better but perhaps not quite ready to rejoin the human race fully.  I’m on my way, though…..and all your messages cheered me up enormously.  Thank you.

Inhabiting this nether world that hovers between being unwell and being healthy is a strange experience.  Once out of bed I decamped to the sofa in front of the logburner and drowsily took in the delights of watching the SA Open from the Gary Player Country Club.  The added bonus of numerous fabulous pictures of the wildlife and Tony Johnstone’s informative commentary was just what the doctor ordered.  I remember Mum just loving watching the golf at this time of year – she loved seeing the players in shirt sleeves in the sunshine as the weather clattered against the windows outside.  For her it was an escape from the LDDBC – the long, dark days before Christmas.

For me, however, it’s about the only time this year (aside from the majors) that I’ve been interested in having the golf on on a Thursday or Friday.  In the majority of tournaments the first two rounds are pretty much unwatchable in my opinion – just a really, really, long time filler of a production.  I feel for the television guys – it’s impossible to be fresh and stimulating week in, week out with Thursday and Friday broadcasts.  I’d get rid of them altogether except for the majors.  A short highlights package would suffice and perhaps the sponsor could get more bang for their buck by having more local community initiatives on during those two days.  Just a thought.

A very welcome parcel arrived on the doorstep earlier this week from my good friend Karl Morris.  It was a copy of his latest book, written with his colleague, Gary Nicol:  The Lost Art of the Short Game.  Karl has been a performance coach and mental guru to a host of sporting aficionados for the thick end of three decades.  We first met back in the late 1990s when sports psychologists were viewed with not a little suspicion and those of us who worked with them tended to keep things quiet as if hiding a guilty secret.

Nowadays, it is recognised as being essential to have a Karl on your team if you really are serious about getting the most out of yourself and your game.  My own view is that the last remaining frontier for man to excel in is in the mental side of things.  In golf in the last quarter of a century the physicality of our sport has burgeoned beyond belief.  Running in tandem with this has been an explosion in technological advancement and surely only marginal gains are remaining in these two arenas.  Not so, methinks, in the mental side of things.

Be that as it may, this slim, easy-to-read volume is bursting with gems and is perfect for any golfer in your life – and don’t forget to put it on your own Christmas list as well!

One of my favourite times spent with Karl was a three day mini tour of seminars that we delivered to fellow professionals alongside the four Harmon brothers, Butch, Craig, Dick and Bill.  We started with a couple of days at the Belfry and then were whisked by private jet to Dublin where we spoke to a full house at Portmarnock.  I found it a nervewracking experience addressing a room full of peers but the time spent in the company of Karl and the Harmons and the hilarious dinners we enjoyed more than made up for any squirming tummy.

This was the spring of 2004 and Butch had just recently been fired as Tiger’s coach – I’ll never forget the merciless ribbing he endured from his brothers.  The four of them didn’t get much opportunity to spend time together and their delight in each other’s company was obvious.  Sadly, Dick died not long afterwards and I think that trip was the last time they were all together.

I was due to get married a couple of weeks later and had a honeymoon planned for after the Ryder Cup in September.  When Butch discovered we were including a trip to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas he insisted on getting involved with the arrangements on his patch, .ie. in Vegas.  He said to leave everything to him and he booked us a hotel for three nights in Vegas prior to our unforgettable hike down to the bottom of the Canyon.  On the morning we were checking out we went to pay the bill.  There was nothing to pay – it was all taken care of, courtesy of Butch.  We’ve never forgotten it.  Thanks Butch.

It’s hard to believe but this ole blog has staggered through another calendar year and we are now limbering up for our seasonal break.  Five and a half years we’ve been going now, which is little short of remarkable – especially as Patricia promised me we could stop after the Open at Portrush in 2019!  What a wonderful way it has been to connect with you all and keep in touch – that makes it all worthwhile for us.  Thank you for reading.

So, have a lovely festive season and we’ll be back to bother you in the New Year.

There’s only one blogger on the case this week because Mo has been laid very low by the dreaded Covid and could barely raise herself from her sickbed let alone raise a finger to tackle her keyboard.  Fortunately her latest test, taken yesterday, was negative, so she’s on her way out of self-isolation and starting to feel human again.

To aid her recovery, golf, proper golf, leads the way this week with the unsurprising announcement that Suzann Pettersen is Europe’s new Solheim Cup captain, charged with defending the trophy in 2023, at Finca Cortesin on the Costa del Sol.

The Norwegian, who holed the winning putt at Gleneagles in 2019, was one of Catriona Matthew’s vice-captains at Inverness Club in Ohio this year as Europe pulled off another stunning victory and said, “I am simply thrilled…This is the biggest honour of my career.

“My best golfing memories are from the Solheim Cup.  You are there with your team mates, your friends and you all work for one goal.  You fight for your friends and you share incredibly precious moments. I love the fighting spirit and how we come together as a team and fight for one another.  It is a lot of fun.

“I’m very excited…I feel like I know a lot of the players but in two years’ time we might have a lot of new young players.  I think my biggest role from now until then is being out there and getting to know them and building relationships.

“At the end of the day, having learned from Beany [Matthew] and the other captains that I have been with, communication is everything.”

Pettersen, who made her Solheim debut at Interlachen in 2002, used to be unbelievably hard on herself as a player and ferocious in the single-mindedness that won her two majors but marriage and motherhood have given her a new perspective and maturity without dousing her competitiveness

She’s hoping for some Spaniards on her team and Carlota Ciganda is one veteran who will be busting a gut to make it.  She won her national title, the Andalucia Costa del Sol Open de Espana, in impressive style at Los Naranjos last weekend and no one was in any doubt what it meant to the 31-year old from Pamplona.  Cool, calm and collected enough to win by four shots, she couldn’t hold back the tears afterwards as she was embraced by family and friends.

“It’s hard to explain,” she said.  “I get emotional because I love Spain and I love my family, so it’s just amazing to win this week.  It’s a tournament that I really wanted to win…to win your country’s tournament is something very special, so I’m very happy.”

Like Pettersen, Ciganda comes alive at the Solheim, putting her heart and soul into the match, inspiring teammates and spectators alike.  She’ll not want to miss out on home turf.

We’re making plans to send a contingent from WHGC to Spain – a former captain has already done a recce – and cheer Europe to another famous victory.  The Americans will have other ideas, of course and viruses and travel restrictions permitting, they’ll have plenty of supporters to cheer them on.  It should be terrific.

Viva Espana.  Vamos.

It would be remiss of me not to mention Atthaya Thitikul, the 18-year old from Thailand who has just become Europe’s No 1 by winning the 2021 Race to Costa del Sol.  She was also rookie of the year and became only the fourth player to achieve that double, joining Dame Laura Davies, Ciganda and Esther Henseleit.

Thitikul won twice and was rarely outside the top six, amazing for someone who didn’t compete at all last year because of the pandemic.  “It’s been a rollercoaster of a year but all the hard work I put in last year has paid off,” she said.  “At the beginning of the year I was scared to see what the conditions were going to be on the golf courses and how the grass plays and if I was going to be able to handle it..

“I’m really proud of myself for the second-place finish on a links course in Scotland [the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open at Dumbarnie Links], while my wins in Switzerland and the Czech Republic were similar conditions to Thailand….My goal is to get better ever single day, I don’t want to just win tournaments, I want to get better in my game.”

She now hopes to secure her card in America and no one in this corner doubts her ability to succeed and adapt wherever she plays in the world as Thailand’s women golfers continue to flourish.

There’s not been much golf in this neck of the woods, with WHGC closed because of snow and frost.  In case we frustrated golfers took the reappearance of green grass to mean that we were free to take to the fairways again, we were directed to an old but relevant blog by Chris Lomas, a former course manager at The Berkshire and former deputy head greenkeeper at Swinley Forest.  In “The Big Thaw”, he explained why it’s important to be patient and wait for the ground to defrost properly.

In essence, we have to respect the judgement of the course manager.  If we move in too early, when the surface is soft and underneath is frozen, Lomas said:  “Walking on the turf will break the roots and likely kill the plant.  Multiply this with hundreds of footprints over a relatively small area and without exaggerating you can devastate your greens…”

Enough said, we’ll hold ourselves back, do the Christmas shopping, play a bit of bridge, walk the dog (perhaps just round the edges of the course) or go to the range and do a Thitikul.

 

 

 

 

 

Cast your mind back to the days when we were working our way out of lockdown and golf was allowed again.  One player at Bramhall Golf Club signed up for the 06.30 tee time – the first slot – each day.  It was Bronte Law, Solheim Cup star and England’s and Cheshire’s finest, who plays mostly in the States and recorded her maiden win on the LPGA in that glorious season of 2019.

Always a grafter, Bronte was working on a radical change to the action that had made her the darling of the Solheim Cup crowds at Gleneagles.  Not for her any kind of break from the grind of a tour player’s life. Rather she seized the opportunity to investigate a stronger, more durable movement that would take pressure off her back and potentially afford her some semblance of longevity in the game.

It was a risk.  Not all swing changes are successful, many players finding themselves left floundering and falling between the twin stools of the old swing versus the new.  Frequently the resulting hybrid is neither use nor ornament.

It’s not easy being a professional athlete.  It’s relentless hard work with zero guarantee of success and you are frequently weighted down with copious amounts of expectation – your own and other peoples’.  I’m not sure which is the more difficult to deal with.  Of course, we, the public and the armchair golfers don’t see any of that.  We don’t live in a haze of dissatisfaction because we can’t fight our way back to where we once were.  We don’t see the hours in the gym, the attention to diet and the lack of a social life.  We only see the players on our TV screens who are near or at the top of the leaderboards and who have scaled the peaks, usually having ridden out lots of troughs.

At last week’s 54-hole Dubai Moonlight Classic Bronte was three behind the effervescent and colourful Mexican Maria Fassi going into the final round.  In fact, there were 19 players within six shots after round two and with a shotgun start it was hard to keep track of where the winner might come from under the floodlights.  Fassi did very little wrong, carding a final round 68 but 26-year old Law was six under for the last eight holes, coming from next to nowhere to shoot 64 and claim her first Ladies’ European Tour win.

That’s all the validation a player needs in order to know they made the right decision to change their swing.  Bronte, looking very trim and honed, had played seven weeks in a row, something her body wouldn’t have allowed her to do before.  She looks to be back where she wants to be in the game, contending for titles and becoming part of Solheim Cup conversations again.

I couldn’t be more delighted.  It almost makes it worth having being on the end of some of the withering looks only a 15-year old can give you.  These usually occurred at Cheshire county coaching when she considered I’d asked her to do something she thought particularly stupid!  Ah the memories – and she was probably right!

Golf, as many of us are aware, seems to move at a glacial pace, both on and off the course.  There is change afoot, however, that is going to impact the elite amateur game in a massive way and it’s set to come in to force in the New Year.  The amateur status rules are being relaxed to allow amateurs to earn money from endorsements, sponsorships and the like as well as being able to accept up to £700 in prize money.

Not before time, I say.  To compete at elite amateur level requires full-time participation in all the top events yet up until now these players have not been allowed to make any money from their activities.  The game changer took place earlier this year in American college golf when restrictions were lifted regarding use of a player’s name, image or likeness (NIL).  College players can, and are, signing with agents while still amateur and deals with equipment companies, for example, can now be more than simply the provision of free gear.  A hefty endorsement fee can now accompany the deal.

Obviously, this rule is only relevant to a minute percentage of those who play the game but it is important for another reason.  Hopefully, the lemming-like leap into the pro ranks because a player can’t afford to remain amateur will cease.  Too many wonderfully talented people have been lost to the game permanently because their transition to the paid ranks has ultimately led to the graveyard of their dreams.  It’s important that in the future the choice of turning pro or ceasing to play because of lack of funds is something that won’t need to be considered.  It also means we can keep scores of talented players in the game at amateur level.  They’ll be our future administrators, our Walker and Curtis Cup captains and will have so much to offer the game at club level as well.  It seems like a win-win to me on several levels.

Talking of club golf, I spotted this on Radio 5 Live’s golf correspondent Iain Carter’s twitter feed.  What do you think?  A good idea or not?