Rory McIlroy is the best by miles... yet typical Brits are still worrying
- Rory McIlroy is one of the best golfers in the world
- However, British fans are still worrying ahead of the Ryder Cup
- Europe are favourites yet there are concerns over McIlroy in a way Americans never worried about Tiger Woods
- Manchester United bought a number of frontmen but failed to sort problems in defence
- Blackpool have played eight Championship games without a win having started the season desperately short of players
- Former Premier League managers Felix Magath and Pepe Mel blamed their failings on small-minded locals and are both without a club
It is
to be hoped Rory McIlroy is impervious to voices from outside the
European camp this week: otherwise he might begin to forget that he is
the best golfer in the world.
Here
comes Rory, a giant Yankee target on his back. There goes Rory,
carrying the weight of his feud with Graeme McDowell. Look how far apart
they are standing in the official photographs. How awkward. How
disruptive. No wonder he doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning.
Will he even make it to the tee on time?
The
continental Europeans in Paul McGinley’s team must be rather bemused by
all this. Worry warts are a very British trait. McIlroy has had his
trials in the past but, right now, he is in a good place. Yet it is in
our nature to pick at the flaws in his little piece of heaven. Nothing
is ever good enough, it seems. Even when we excel, we search for the
fault.
Rory McIlroy has been too good for his US rivals... yet the Brits are still worrying ahead of the Ryder Cup
McIlroy was victorious at The Open at Royal Liverpool back in July and is the best golfer in the world
VIDEO The Open Championship - Final Round highlights
Only
the British would arrive at the theory that somebody else wrote
Shakespeare’s plays, or recast Alfred, who saw off the Vikings, improved
educational standards and created the Navy and Civil Service, as a
hapless loser in a ninth-century version of The Great British Bake Off.
Now
it is McIlroy’s turn. Will he crumble under pressure, will golfers who
cannot live with him most weeks suddenly possess the wit to psyche him
out? Sport is the perfect outlet for our neuroses. We feel uncomfortable
with its heroes, seeming almost delighted to discover that Bobby Moore
was a heavy drinker who couldn’t keep a golf club membership or a
business that didn’t burst into flames. Andy Murray, meanwhile, is more
likely to be vilified for holding a view on Scottish independence than
be praised for emerging from that country to win two grand slams.
Remember
the agonising doubts around the rugby played by Sir Clive Woodward’s
winning World Cup team in 2003? Like McIlroy, they were No 1, except by
the time they reached the final the country had convinced itself that
the team were dull, borderline incompetent and completely reliant on
Jonny Wilkinson, while Sir Clive was a swivel-eyed egomaniac, destined
for a colossal fall. With hindsight, that England won the tournament on
Australia’s turf was a predictable conclusion; they were the best around
by a mile. But we had talked ourselves out of it. We feel better as
underdogs, or losers.
And
Europe are strong favourites this week, so now we worry ourselves sick
about McIlroy in a way the Americans never feared for Tiger Woods. They
thought he could look after himself during the Ryder Cup even when the
evidence suggested otherwise. American television companies still sold
the tournament off his back, American captains still gave him the anchor
role or the big-ticket partner. And Woods was not a great Ryder Cup
player. He averaged 0.43 points per game.
McIlroy
averages 0.55. It doesn’t seem much but Lee Westwood is regarded as a
Ryder Cup colossus and his average is only 0.56. So McIlroy has never
had the problems with team golf that dogged Woods. He could develop a
serious complex, though, if he pays too much attention to the hype.
The
latest round of inverted piffle concerns McIlroy versus Horizon Sports
Management, the company that represents team-mate McDowell. McIlroy sued
Horizon after becoming unhappy with their representation, Horizon
responded by claiming £1m in unpaid fees. McDowell is a director of
Horizon and part of the claim is that he received better treatment.
McIlroy’s
lawyer may ask Horizon to disclose private details of McDowell’s
contract. Does any of this matter on the first tee at Glen-eagles,
though? Does it hell. This is a commercial lawsuit and, according to the
judge, Justice Brian McGovern, ‘made for mediation’. In other words, it
will probably be settled out of court by lawyers.
As
anyone who has sat at the back of the 18th green knows, there is
absolutely no chance that a contractual disagreement of this nature
could override the fervour that develops around the Ryder Cup. That
McIlroy and McDowell would be unable to see beyond a dispute between
agents, accountants and marketing men is preposterous. Teddy Sheringham
and Andy Cole had a genuine personal animosity. It didn’t stop them
becoming one of the most successful strike pairings for McIlroy’s team,
Manchester United.
If
anything, the unfounded concern over McIlroy and McDowell’s
relationship may work in Europe’s favour. Wondering whether they can
still play together has brought McGinley to the question of whether they
should. The pair have only won two matches in six as a pair. They are
not exactly one of the great Ryder Cup partnerships. Now it is
speculated that McIlroy may partner Ian Poulter — the world No 1 with
Europe’s talisman. That might work.
Unfounded concern over McIlroy and Graeme McDowell's relationship may actually work in Europe's favour
‘Find
and break McIlroy,’ was the advice from Paul Azinger, the only
victorious United States captain this century, to his counterpart Tom
Watson. Yet American golfers have the opportunity to do that every week
of the season. They could find him in the last two major tournaments,
right at the top of the leaderboard at the end of day four, and they
could find him at the head of the PGA money list, too. If it was that
easy to break McIlroy, American golfers would do it with greater
regularity.
In
the current PGA rankings the gap between Jimmy Walker in fourth place
and Jim Furyk, lying third, is $200,379. Between Furyk and second-placed
Bubba Watson is $349,583. Tight differentials can be found throughout
the table. From Billy Horschel to Chris Kirk $39,990; from Rickie Fowler
to Horschel $8,670. Not inconsequential sums, but suggesting a basic
uniformity. And from McIlroy’s No 1 spot to his nearest rival, Watson?
$1,943,118.
He is a speck in the distance, a creature from another planet right now. Find McIlroy, America? Not if he finds them first.
McIlroy and the rest of the European
Ryder Cup team were paid a visit by former Manchester United manager Sir
Alex Ferguson (bottom row, third left) on Tuesday
NO LOUIS, FRONT LOADING JUST DOESN'T WORK
There
is a moment in David Lean’s 1952 film Breaking The Sound Barrier when
pilot Philip Peel, played by John Justin, reverses his flight controls
at a crucial moment and flies faster than any man before.
This
is not how history recalls it. General Chuck Yeager of the United
States Air Force broke the sound barrier in a Bell X-1 in 1947, and he
did it the conventional way: by going faster and faster until he heard a
loud bang. Action films live off the counter-intuitive, though. Plots
turn and twist on variations of that old line: it sounds crazy, captain,
but it might just work. Still, there was a Cold War on and a news
blackout around Yeager’s actual achievement, so many civilians believed
that the sound barrier was shattered by a Briton, using unorthodox
means.
Maybe
those in command at Manchester United thought they were going to break
their own little barrier by opposing conformist wisdom, too. Successful
teams are built from the back? How about we build from the front? Weak
in defence? Who cares? So is everybody else. Why don’t we just buy all
the best forwards and blast our way into the Champions League? Reverse
the controls, Louis. It’s crazy, but it might just work.
Manchester United manager Louis van
Gaal bought a plethora of attacking talent but the Red Devils' defence
has failed to impress so far this term and conceded five goals at
Leicester
Manchester United look dejected having squandered their two-goal lead against the Foxes on Sunday
United
put four past a desperately ordinary Queens Park Rangers side and Louis
van Gaal immediately began targeting the mantle of Premier League top
scorers this season. He said he wanted to maintain a proud, if
self-proclaimed, record of always producing the most entertaining team
in any domestic competition. This was the duty of a Manchester United
manager, he said. He is not wrong there. The most damning revelation
about David Moyes in Rio Ferdinand’s autobiography is his caution.
Manchester United without daring are not Manchester United at all.
And
for one week it looked as if United’s scheme might work. No team have
defended particularly well this season. Liverpool and Arsenal have
serious defensive issues, Manchester City have kept one clean sheet all
campaign and even Chelsea appear distracted, trailing to Burnley and
Swansea City and conceding three at Everton.
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