| OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP REVIEW
Hoylake
High
Rory McIlroy’s triumph at last month’s Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, the 25-year-old’s third major championship victory, was down to a new-found patience, writes Lewine Mair.
One year on from missing the cut at Muirfield, Rory McIlroy took away the Claret Jug from Royal Liverpool with a performance that was every bit as impressive as his two other major championship wins
Photography by Charles McLaughlin, Rolex / Chris Turvey and AFP
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McIlroy stays alive at the address and his shots are correspondingly full of zing. On top of that, he plays at a pace which sets precisely the right example to all would-be Rorys.
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t was back at the 2007 Open at Carnoustie that the then 18-year-old Rory McIlroy talked to the world’s press about how he had been totally smitten with the game from the moment he watched Tiger Woods winning the 1996 US Amateur.
Rickie Fowler has proved that he has the game – and the temperament – to succeed around the bouncy and windblown links courses on the Open Championship rota 46
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“After that,” said McIlroy, who won the silver medal for low amateur honours at Carnoustie, “it was Tiger, Tiger, Tiger. He’s been the big influence in my golfing life. I tried to copy everything he did.” Mannerisms such as Tiger’s pre-shot routine came free but not so the Scotty Cameron putter which young Rory felt he had to have. Indeed, his father, Gerry, can remember wincing as he had the costly implement cut down to the right height for a seven-year-old. Rory had Tiger posters all over his bedroom wall and, in 2000, he was able to add a signed flag from the first Open Tiger won at St Andrews. At last month’s Open at Hoylake, where Woods finished at six over par to McIlroy’s winning tally of 17 under, people were on red alert to see what Woods would have to say when someone posed the question, “What’s it like to see Rory dominate in a way that only you have in a major like this?
Woods, who had won at Hoylake in 2006, was far too wily to let the world know that he was feeling gutted, even if he was. Instead, he went off at a tangent to give a totally honest assessment of McIlroy’s game: “The way he plays is pretty aggressively. When he gets it going, he gets it going. When it gets bad, it gets going real bad. It’s one or the other. It’s very similar to what Phil [Mickelson] does. He has his hot weeks and he has his weeks where he’s off – and that’s just the nature of how he plays the game. There’s no right way or wrong way.” As one of that elite body of men who have gone into the last day of majors with a handsome lead, Woods was also quizzed on what it had meant to McIlroy to have been as many as six ahead going into the last round. “The beauty of having such a large lead,” replied Woods, “is that you can make mistakes and still win the tournament. The guys have to come and get you. “In finishing eagle, bogey, eagle in his third round, Rory made a wonderful job of separating himself from the rest. All of a sudden he went from level to six ahead and after that he had a choice. He could afford to play conservatively and he could afford to play aggressively.” Moving on to his own performance, Woods described it as “encouraging” rather than the reverse. After all, he had hardly played since his early-season back operation. He made it plain that he believes he still has what it takes to win majors and you would have to suspect that he raised a quizzical eyebrow at McIlroy’s use of the past tense in his Sundaynight reference to him. HKGOLFER.COM
Fowler has benefited from working with Butch Harmon. Aside altogether from helping with technical issues, Harmon would appear to have advised his charge to come across as more of a serious player.
Clockwise from top: Sergio Garcia applauds the crowds after his brilliant final-round 66; Tiger Woods faded after a promising start; Adam Scott once again featured prominently at the Open Championship, despite being forced to take an penalty drop during his final round 48
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The relevant McIlroy comment was as follows: “I want to be the guy who goes on and regularly wins majors and other tournaments like Jack Nicklaus did and Tiger Woods did.” It could well have been inadvertent, for the impression overall was that McIlroy played his part in one of the most sporting of Opens of recent years, one in which one top player after another came across as the best of role models. McIlroy had talked of his new-found patience at the start of the week. Yet how much of his enhanced performance was down to patience and how much to the spring and bounce with which he goes about his business on a good day? Where others who work on patience can become too ponderous for their own good, McIlroy stays alive at the address and his shots are correspondingly full of zing. On top of that, he plays at a pace which sets precisely the right example to all would-be Rorys. The other thing the young champion did
so well was in showing time and time again that he had the mental wherewithal to keep the advancing Garcia successfully at bay. Both Fowler and Garcia, who ended up two shots to his rear, were generous in defeat whilst letting everyone know that they have no intention of letting McIlroy leave them behind. Fowler has benefited from working with Butch Harmon, of that there is no doubt. Aside altogether from helping with technical issues, Harmon would appear to have advised his charge to come across as more of a serious player. The freaky hair-style has gone, as indeed has the over-the-top use of orange. Where, previously, he has set out on Sundays looking like a volunteer for the local lifeboat crew, he is now restricting himself to an orange shirt. Garcia, meantime, is eschewing the bitter little asides which used to accompany his close calls in majors. There was a typical example on the Saturday night of the aforementioned 2007 Open in which he lost out to Padraig Harrington in a play-off. A pressman had started a question – presumably about Garcia’s inability to finish off in majors – with the words, “I don’t want to rekindle any bad memories but ...” At that, the Spaniard had intervened to say, “Well don’t.” After a pause, he had added, “What’s wrong with you? I’m only 27. Imagine how many years I have. I have 80, maybe 85 majors to come. It’s not like I am 45-years-old.” At Hoylake, where he was seven shots back going into the last round, Garcia was endlessly positive, endlessly fair. He was justifiably proud of himself for having given his last round 66 his best shot – and that was what mattered most. “Sometimes you play well but there is just one better player and Rory was better,” he said. There are girlfriends who can hold a player back but, in Katharina Boehm, Garcia has found a genuine golfing soul-mate, one who slips into his very close family with no questions asked. She and Sergio’s father, Victor, will regularly join forces to play against Sergio, and both happily confided that they have found a formula in which they have the beating of him. When Garcia won the 2013 Thailand Open, Katherina, who was caddying for him, saw her main role as one of keeping Sergio’s spirits up. Yet when Katherina needed a bit of consoling after Garcia had lost out to McIlroy at Hoylake, Garcia was the one to stay positive. At 34, as he said to the TV men, he has grown up a bit. “All this week has helped me,” he said – and yes, he was referring to the business of winning majors. Next, what of Adam Scott? Scott professed himself to be a little annoyed HKGOLFER.COM
A PROUD PARTNERSHIP: ROLEX AND THE OPEN The Open Championship and Rolex have much in common. Both have been thrilling aesthetes for well over a century and both set the standard for quality in their respective fields. It was inevitable really that the two prestigious icons would become intertwined somehow and so it has proved. The Geneva-based luxury brand has been a proud sponsor of the championship for 30 years now. It is also the official timekeeper for the event. Rolex’s tie-up with the game’s oldest major is reflective of its overall commitment to golf. In 1967, Arnold Palmer became a Rolex ambassador, marking the start of the brand’s association with golf. Today, the Rolex roster of golf sponsorships has grown to include the names of some of the game’s best-known players. Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods, Phil Adam Scott, Martin Kaymer and Annika Sorenstam are among the proud athletes to wear one of the brand’s luxury timepieces away from the fairways.Rolex’s association with
the Royal and Ancient, golf’s governing body, has been a fruitful one. In 2004, the relationship was extended to Rolex sponsoring the publication of the English language version of the Rules of Golf and its global distribution. Rolex has also provided support to help the R&A grow the amateur game. The brand is also the official partner of the USGA, the European Tour and title sponsors the world rankings in the women’s game.In recent times Rolex has been very much behind the drive to bring golf into China. Despite the long heritage and traditions associated with Golf in the west, just over 25 years ago, the sport was practically non-existent in China. In 2010 Rolex signed a partnership agreement with the China Golf Association and sponsored the first official translation of the Rules of Golf into Chinese. It marked a determination by the brand, not just to be associated with sport but to further its reach into what is the world’s fastest growing nation.
at losing an Open in which he followed a 68, 73 start with rounds of 69 and 66 for a share of fifth place. “I’m upset to be playing so well and to be leaving here and not winning,” he began. “I’m going to give myself a little bit of a break and say it was a bit of a lop-sided draw this week. It didn’t work out for me; there were only a couple of guys from my half in the top 25 after two rounds and that made it hard to compete.” Steve Williams, Scott’s caddie, was thinking forward rather than back. “Adam’s playing better than ever, particularly off the tee. For a long time, he didn’t have a game plan for the Open. Now he’s got a plan and it’s an effective plan.” Scott, when he finished a good 40 minutes ahead of McIlroy, said he had no doubts that McIlroy would tie things up.: “When Rory’s on his rhythm, he’s phenomenal. He’s got more strengths than anyone else.” Wood’s comments on McIlroy had passed the test, but Scott’s were generous to a fault. At the championship’s close, 63-year-old Tom Watson, the owner of a fourth-round 68 which saw him finishing at one-over, was smiling a smile which encompassed rather more than merely his own week’s work. He may have been in a bit of a dilemma as to whether he should have Tiger in his team for Gleneagles but he had no worries about the state of golf in general. The latest generation had acquitted themselves with distinction in the Open of 2014, while the championship itself, with its 202,917 spectators, had been a more than minor triumph. HKGOLFER.COM
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2014 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL STANDINGS
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NUMBERS GAME
1
Rory McIlroy
NIR
66 66 68 71
271
US$1,655,788
2=
Sergio Garcia
ESP
68 70 69 66
273
$785,910
Rickie Fowler
USA
69 69 68 67
273
$785,910
4
Jim Furyk
USA
68 71 71 65
275
$478,380
5=
Marc Leishman
AUS
69 72 70 65
276
$359,639
Adam Scott
AUS
68 73 69 66
276
$359,639
7=
Charl Schwartzel
RSA
71 67 72 67
277
$263,536
Edoardo Molinari
ITA
68 73 68 68
277
$263,536
9=
Shane Lowry
IRE
68 75 70 65
278
$192,492
Graeme McDowell
NIR
74 69 68 67
278
$192,492
Victor Dubuisson
FRA
74 66 68 70
278
$192,492
12= Ryan Moore
USA
70 68 73 68
279
$144,654
Robert Karlsson
SWE
69 71 70 69
279
$144,654
Dustin Johnson
USA
71 65 71 72
279
$144,654
15= Francesco Molinari
ITA
68 70 75 67
280
$117,318
David Howell
ENG
72 70 70 68
280
$117,318
Stephen Gallacher
SCO
70 72 70 68
280
$117,318
18
George Coetzee
RSA
70 69 74 68
281
$105,073
19= Angel Cabrera
ARG
76 69 70 67
282
$93,968
Keegan Bradley
USA
73 71 69 69
282
$93,968
Chris Kirk
USA
71 74 68 69
282
$93,968
Matteo Manassero
ITA
67 75 68 72
282
$93,968
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The nu mber of birdies that Rickie Fowler made during the week, the most of any player in the field. Rory McIlroy, the champion, made three fewer but was aided by two third-round eagles.
The nu mber of holes that McIlroy required only one putt on, which put him in a tie for third in this particular category. While much was talked about his prodigious length off the tee, the Northern Irishman’s short game was as good as anyone’s at Hoylake.
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The percentage o f f a i r way s t h a t E n g l a n d ’s C h r i s Rodgers, an Asian Tour reg ular, hit over the course of four rounds, the highest of those who made the cut. Rodgers finished in a share of 58th, adding further weight to the old adage of ‘drive for show, putt for dough’. HKGOLFER.COM