RORY MCILROY AND his partner Caroline Wozniacki have a rare weekend off together but the Northern Irish golfer is determined to put the hard practice yards in at the same venue where he missed the cut.
McIlroy recorded an even par 72 yesterday at Carton House but his two-round total of +2 was not good enough to avoid a missed cur at the 2013 Irish Open. The Holywood native was one of four Major winners, from Ireland, to be denied weekend action due to inadequate scoring. Pádraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke are the others.
The world number two was eager to accentuate the positives when he spoke to the assembled media on Friday evening.
“I actually feel like I played okay today, a little bit better,” he said. “When I missed a green, I didn’t really get up‑and‑down and I didn’t hole many putts. But I thought ball‑striking‑wise was definitely a little bit better today.” McIlroy added:
I’ll probably be still be here the weekend and practice. But not nice to not be out there competing and obviously trying to win a tournament at the weekend.”
McIlroy feels he has adequate time to work out his driving and putting kinks before next month’s British [The] Open. He added, “As I say, I just need to work on my game and try to keep doing the right things and put the work in and if I can do that, you know, it should turn around at some point, whether that’s in a couple of weeks or a little bit further down the line.”
Irish golfer Shane Lowry is currently tied for third on -7, two shots back from American Peter Uiklein and Robert Rock of England.
McIlroy hopes that he will be back in the winner’s circle sooner rather than later. He said, “I still have a lot of big tournaments, two Majors and still a lot of golf to play this year, and just going to try and work as hard as I possibly can to get back to the golf that I know that I’m capable of playing.”
Wozniacki, who was dumped out of Wimbledon in its first week, will not be at a loose end while her boyfriend is off fine-tuning this weekend. There are plenty of tennis courts on the grounds of Carton House that she can practice on.
Unbelievable how they are unable to transfer any of their incredible success at Minor Level to Senior level, their record at Minor level is off the wall. This is a county that had never won a Minor Championship until 1983, now I think that is their 14th title, where do all these players disappear to?
@The Firestarter: Beertown
@The Firestarter: straight into all Ireland semi final for majority of those years. Not battle hardened?
@The Firestarter: The seniors have been in 6 all Ireland finals since the turn of the millennium so the players haven’t disappeared. Mayo footballers have zero all Irelands in that time but no one would argue that they haven’t been one of the best football teams in the country over the last 20 years.
Well done to our young lads . Making history again .
@Finnster:Just wondering how ye made history again with minors?
@Declan Lacey: Well 3 in a row was history previously for Galway Minor hurling when they became only one of two counties in Ireland the other being Cork back in the 70′s to achieve it.
Also on a side note as the new U20 All Ireland football championship is not that old I think Galway are also the only county to hold it and the minor Hurling Championship at the same time as they defeated Dublin in the final.
@Declan Lacey: read the article , the clues are there
@Declan Lacey:
Probably the most successful minor hurling team of each decade by number of All-Ireland Minor Hurling titles
2000s: 4 for Galway (2000-04-05-09)
2010s: 5 for Galway (2011-15-17-18-19)
Jesus the ref did his best for kilkenny to win it. Great win tonight
Congrats to a fine young Galway team. A lot of senior teams would want take note of that game today. All skills of game on show and no diving or pussyfooting about.
@Mervyn Queally: none of that Limerick Bish bash bosh stuff
@Mervyn Queally: have to agree, he gave a penalty to Kilkenny rightly so , shortly afterwards a Galway forward was taken down in the same fashion, nothing given. With a couple of minutes left a Galway forward was taken out, if the tackle was made in rugby it would be yellow or red card. The referee threw in the ball.
Great achievement! well done to the the tribesmen braves.
1 senior all Ireland since 88, what goes wrong in the west. Serious talent.
@Kevin Shortall: is that a congratulations you were trying to say there in a Kilkenny kind of way
@Kevin Shortall: 3 since 86 though and lost 6 all-ireland finals since then. Not bad for a traditionally football county.