GOLF: IF ALL things had gone to plan, then Rory McIlroy – in the week ahead of his maiden appearance in the Ryder Cup – would have been playing in the Tour Championship on the US Tour, the finale to the megabucks FedEx Cup series. Maybe the gods were looking after him, for yesterday the 21-year-old Ulsterman conceded it was perhaps "a blessing in disguise" that he had missed out on the tournament.
In expressing his belief that he is better off not playing in Atlanta, where the biggest financial prize in golf is on the line, McIlroy explained: “Practice has been going great. It has been a blessing in disguise missing the Tour Championship. I just wasn’t my normal self the last few weeks in America and I just needed a couple of days at home to recharge and refresh the mind and to get ready to go for the Ryder Cup. I definitely feel as if I am going into the Ryder Cup with my game in better overall shape than if I had been playing (in the United States).”
In fact, McIlroy has been playing in a charity pro-am in Scotland – run by Darren Clarke and cricketer Ian Botham – for the past two days and also plans to visit the final of the Nick Faldo Series tomorrow, which is being staged at the Lough Erne Resort in Co Fermanagh which he represents as their touring professional.
However, given the lack of energy he confessed to feeling in playing most recently in the BMW Championship at Cogs Hill just outside Chicago, McIlroy plans on revisiting his tour schedule with his manager Chubby Chandler for next season.
That event in Chicago was his sixth in a seven-week stretch and McIlroy – a winner of the US Tour earlier in the season at Quail Hollow, which gets him into the season-opening tournament in Hawaii in January – doesn’t particularly want such extended runs in his itinerary again.
“We are going to look at the schedule for next year and where I went wrong basically this year and set a better schedule for next year,” he said.
Now, though, the immediate focus for McIlroy is the Ryder Cup. And while he made a comment on the eve of the Irish Open at Baltray in May of 2009 – some 16 months ago – that the match was only “an exhibition”, he is now looking forward to reaching another milestone in a career that has taken him to world number eight in the official rankings.
As he put it yesterday, “I think I made those comments when I was in the middle of the season and it was the last thing that really could have been talked about. Once it’s coming closer and the excitement is building, it is going to be fantastic. It is definitely not an exhibition, it is a great spectacle. All I was trying to say is I just want to go there and enjoy it and that’s what I am trying to do.”
Is it more important than a major? “Well, I could go next week and win one out of five matches and still win the Ryder Cup, so I might not actually play very well but still be part of a winning team. Whereas in a major, you have got to play well to win.”
Nonetheless, McIlroy – the youngest member of the European team – is determined to make an impact, even if his communication with Montgomerie has been rather quiet and confined these past three weeks to just a text he received after the first round of the Deutsche Bank tournament in Boston.
Still, the expectation is that he will form some partnership with US Open champion Graeme McDowell, although McIlroy was diplomatic in remarking: “Whoever Monty feels I am best playing with, I really don’t mind. I want to go out there and win some points . . . I am very close to GMac, we would love to partner each other.
“If we can get a couple of games together, if so we will try and make the most of it.”
He added: “I’m concentrating on getting my game in the best possible shape to go there (to Celtic Manor), and if I can do that then that’s half the battle . . . once Friday comes, you just get the game head on and go out and try to play.
“It will be my first experience of the Ryder Cup and one that I will try to enjoy. And, if I enjoy myself, hopefully I will be able to play some good golf as well.”
