Home side had the better players but Pádraig Harrington didn’t help himself with his wildcards or partnershipsThe most fundamental and important, if boring, point. On paper, USA had the stronger Ryder Cup team by a considerable margin. If they played to their full potential, Europe would not have enough strength in depth to compete with them. And so it proved; there was not a single failure in the home team, justifying their heavy favouritism before a ball was struck. Sport would be a terribly dull place if expected outcomes based on talent level was the outcome all the time but in this case it was precisely what happened. Every USA player returned at least a point, three Europeans won none....
His last major was in August 2014, he is in questionable form and has a new swing coach – but Rory McIlroy knows AugustaIf he hadn’t seen such riches he could live with being poor. Any assessment of a run for Rory McIlroy without claiming a major championship – which has now stretched to six years and eight months – comes with yearning. McIlroy at his best provides sporting masterpiece.McIlroy won two of his four majors thus far by eight shots. Albeit the margin of victory at the 2014 Open Championship was far smaller, McIlroy controlled that event from start to finish. Just weeks later at the US PGA Championship, the ease with which he recovered from a mid-round Sunday...
Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka are among those to distance themselves from the new tour, but too much time and money has been invested for PGL to turn back nowCoronavirus and its associated troubles is not the only matter to have caused Jay Monahan recent strain. As golf, like all other sports, now seeks to navigate a path towards resumption there will inevitably be a sense that additional challenges may disappear. They may actually multiply. Monahan, in his role as the PGA Tour’s commissioner, encountered 2020 turmoil even before the pandemic afforded the world a new normal.The Premier Golf League dominated discussion in the early part of this year, even though sceptics insist this is a scheme based in dreamland....
A review of the golfing year features McIlroy’s disastrous start at Portrush and Hinako Shibuno’s fairytale win at the British OpenAs the freshly plundered FedEx truck disappears down the lane, not so much as a bronze centime left rattling around the back, now seems as good a time as any to take stock of the year in golf. So here are our (slightly less valuable) end-of-season prizes.Anti-climax of the year Related: Lightning strikes Tour Championship and leaves six spectators in hospital Related: Scottish golf’s biggest handicap? Its elitist clubs. But change is in the air... | Kevin McKenna Continue reading...
The Real Madrid winger’s dream has turned into a nightmare and he finds himself in the same boat as Özil and SánchezIn his documentary State of Play, an examination of the current wellbeing of football aired on BT Sport last week, Michael Calvin was granted an audience with Gareth Bale. He put it to the Real Madrid winger that Rory McIlroy, in whose company Calvin had spent quality time while embedded with Europe’s 2018 Ryder Cup team at the invitation of their captain, Thomas Bjorn, had told him that when you reach a certain level as an athlete or sportsman you can no longer retain that joy you had as an innocent kid. “Have you found that?” he asked Bale.“Yeah,...