April 14, 2011
After digesting the catastrophic imploding of Rory McIlroy’s final round at golf’s prestigious 2011 Master’s tournament, it was proven again that no matter how good (or bad) a player is at golf, we all get to screw up along the way. The pressure must be tremendous for these guys playing the most important golf tournament in the world. How about Tiger Woods? Putting for an eagle and the lead, he misses an easy putt. Sometimes I watch these guys play and I cannot believe the shots they screw up. I thought duffers like me were the only ones that screw up six inch putts, however, after watching the pros play on TV for sometime, I know better. I’m by far, no golf expert and a terrible player, but, I know that this game plays with your head. When one is playing a round, messes up and starts losing confidence, everything goes to hell. How else can you explain a beautiful drive on number one and out of bounds on number two? Or, how about a twelve foot putt on one hole and missing a one foot putt on the next? It happens to me all the time and I go to church every Sunday. Anyway, what happened to Rory McIlroy, who was holding a four stroke lead going into the final round? My opinion? Something happened inside his head. Confidence lost, too much pressure while thinking “just eighteen more holes and it’s mine, just play your game, don’t worry about what everybody else is doing”. Tough to do while playing with the best players in the world, some, past Master’s winners. I feel for him, but he will be back. I think this young man will win many tournaments in the future. Now, here is some excellent commentary on the subject from some real golf experts. First Jeff Macgregor at sports.espn.go.com – Second by Colin Montgomerie at telegraph.co.uk – Third by Shane Bacon of sports.yahoo.com – Fourth and last but not least “Jeff” on theothersports.com:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?id=6329147
http://theothersports.com/golf/pga/rory-mcilroy-arrival-delayed/