LIV rebel rolled back the years with a final round flourish but futures of the two biggest names in golf are up in the airMasters week in April is always a long one in Augusta. The Monday before the major, all the talk around the course was about Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, who were out playing a practice round together. Whether it really was or not, their pairing felt like a pointed rejoinder to the LIV golfers who were still arriving at the course. Woods and McIlroy aren’t just the two biggest names in the game, but the two most outspoken critics of the breakaway tour. And here they were, taking ownership of the biggest stage.Augusta National is a...
McIlroy made a perfectly measured start in the lead but could not find the putts he needed after Cameron Smith’s birdie burstRory McIlroy had been waiting seven years, 11 months, eight days for this opportunity, ever since he won his fourth major at Valhalla in 2014. And in the end all that time turned on one moment, at 6.30pm on the 17th green of the Old Course at St Andrews.Way ahead of him, up the 18th fairway, Cameron Smith was standing over a two-foot putt that would take him to 20 under for the championship. McIlroy, two shots back from that, knew he needed to finish with back-to-back birdies to match him, and take the 150th Open into a playoff....
Australian’s success based on solid long drives, astute selection of landing spots and spectacular puttingTalent demands a price, and great golfers know that sooner or later they have to pay for their gifts with a dip in performance that drags them back towards the field, where lesser mortals toil. Cameron Smith found himself in that Gethsemane on Saturday, but was determined not to suffer there on Sunday. And so it came to pass. Redemption and acclamation at last.What a magnificent win it was, fashioned from solid, long drives in mostly still air, astute selection of landing spots with his laser-like irons and some quite spectacular putting, his sword and shield, for an eight‑under-par 64 to go with 67, 64 and...
Irishman and Norwegian decide to take on the course and share the lead going into the final round of the OpenGolf is not just about numbers, although it would be meaningless without them. What excites players and spectators alike is the occasional magic trick, something memorable to bring delight and joy to all who love the game – even the LIV renegades lurking further down the table.Such a moment arrived for Rory McIlroy and the rest of us on the 10th, the 386-yard par four named after a magician of long ago, the triple Open champion, Bobby Jones, who mastered this course twice, in 1926 and 1927. Continue reading...
Northern Irishman still attracts galleries at Augusta but has now adjusted his sights to a top-10 finish going into final day“I feel like I’m right there,” said Rory McIlroy on Friday night, as he weighed his chances after back‑to‑back rounds of 73 on Thursday and Friday. “You go out tomorrow and you play a decent front nine, and all of a sudden you’re right in the thick of things.” Seventeen hours later, he stepped out on to the 1st tee and, thwack, dumped his opening drive right into a fairway bunker, then, crack, whacked his second shot into the lip where it rebounded and fell back down by his feet. His third made it on to the green, where he...