Rory McIlroy delivers Masters gesture at Irish Open after venting frustrations with officials
Rory McIlroy’s dramatically shifting demeanor at the K Club mirrored the unpredictable weather in Ireland on Thursday. The Masters champion delivered a pointed message to the DP World Tour and PGA Tour after his group was placed on the clock twice during the opening round of the Irish Open.
Then, fewer than two hours later, McIlroy captivated the audience on stage in the Championship Village, where he made his inaugural public appearance donning the green jacket he secured at Augusta to claim Masters champion status for the first time.
The storm clouds had cleared by that point, even though his conversation with broadcaster Shane O’Donoghue was sporadically disrupted by rainfall. 30 minutes before their question-and-answer session commenced, competition was halted on the course for 36 minutes due to lightning concerns, reports the Irish Mirror.
“Who thought of holding this outside,” McIlroy chuckled, as spectators raised hoods and opened umbrellas.
Yet nobody departed as they heard him analyze his Grand Slam accomplishment, how he pursued his ambition and his aspirations of completing the Grand Slam once more.
Regarding the Irish Open, McIlroy revealed that his mother, Rosie, derived greater joy from his 2016 victory at the K Club than from any of his major championships.
He also confessed that, aside from that single triumph, he has fallen short of expectations in his 20 years competing in the tournament.
An opening 71 indicates he has ground to makeup to position himself for contention when he begins his second round at 1pm. “Get off to a good start tomorrow, hopefully the weather sort of sorts holds and try to climb my way up the leaderboard and have a good weekend,” said McIlroy from the stage.
“But I still feel like I’m right in there. I don’t think anyone is going to really run away over the next two days so if I get out there and shoot something in the mid-60s I’ll have a great chance going into the weekend.”
Nevertheless, leaving the course earlier he had expressed annoyance that he hadn’t extracted more from a solid round. Surrendering two strokes in his final three holes didn’t assist matters and he placed the responsibility on his group being timed for sluggish play.
Yet McIlroy blamed the issue on Tour officials failing to consider the commotion that accompanies the world’s elite players with massive crowds – particularly when they’re competing on familiar territory – and the television crews required to broadcast the featured groups for live coverage.
“In all honesty, I felt a little rushed out there for the last 12 holes,” he told reporters afterwards. “We got put on the clock pretty early, and then the first official went away and then we were put on the clock for the last three holes to try to make time up.
“And it’s hard because you feel a bit rushed. You’re playing some tough holes and we obviously, our group, have to deal with a lot more than any other group on the course. So it’s understandable that we lose time.”
McIlroy suggests that Tour officials should be more understanding. He feels singled out: “I feel like any time I either come back to Europe or I play in some of these like one, two, three in the world type groups, we’re always put on the clock for that reason,” he expressed.
“So I got a little frustrated the last few holes because I feel like it always happens and I don’t think they use sort of common sense in terms of, well, of course we’re going to lose ground because we’re going to have to wait on crowds and wait on the two camera crews that are out there.
“There’s just a lot more going on with our group than any of the other groups on the course, and sometimes I feel like they have to give us a little bit of leeway and use a bit of common sense.”
Interestingly, McIlroy is known for his quick pace in the game, yet he feels unfairly targeted, confessing that he “lost my s—” with a PGA Tour official during the Players Championship earlier this year.
For instance, on the 7th hole, both Lawrence and Reitan ended up in the water. Recalling the incident, McIlroy said: “Yeah, and then obviously they’re taking their time, whatever, and I was in my mind like, ‘oh, do I just go first to try to save a bit of time here?’
“But not really, you can still wait your turn. So it wasn’t really that, I guess it was more I just felt because it’s happened to me quite a lot before in these sort of big groups who want to come back to Europe and play, I felt like I just let it agitate me a little bit.”
