Rory McIlroy defends his decision to remain idle after the US Open
Rory McIlroy, the newly crowned US Open champion, vociferously defended his decision to stay out of mainstream golf after his stellar victory at the Congressional last month.
The 22-year-old Irishman was criticized for his immature decision to stay put till the next major, the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s at Sandwich. Instead of preparing for the third major of the season, the young McIlroy opted to drown himself in
the endless streak of celebrations both within and outside of his country.
“Some people may have wondered why I chose to go from one Major straight to another without anything in between and the answer is simple.” McIlroy wrote on his website after pulling in a practice round at Royal St. George’s. “Because of what happened at
Congressional and the way it became such a big deal, I wanted to get everything out of the way and sorted so that when I did start playing again I could just concentrate on golf.”
The victory at the US Open is likely to become the cornerstone of McIlroy’s future endeavours in the sport. He became the youngest player to win the title after Bobby Jones in 1923 and managed to clinch the feat with a record breaking lead of eight shots.
Many of the golf critics regarded a poorly prepared course as the main reason behind McIlroy’s mind blowing lead but regardless of the various reasons which might have caused him to gain such an overwhelming lead, there’s little doubt that McIlroy would
have taken down the field on whichever course the event was contested on. His uncharted brilliance at Congressional, reverberated the times of Tiger Woods in his early days.
Colin Montgomerie and another Irishman Padraig Harrington had criticized McIlroy’s decision to stay back from professional tournaments and have reasoned that his return at the Royal St. George’s will be gruesomely tiring and fatiguing. Montgomerie also believed
that meeting the 155 players and another 155 caddies to collect all the tributes and shaking some 300 plus hands can prove to be too much for the young McIlroy.
McIlroy pulled out of the French Open soon after his victory at the Congressional and also revealed that he will not participate till the upcoming Open Championship. He defends his decision to pull out of the French Open and cites that too much over work
often causes him to slide down.
McIlroy also said that he started practicing after ten days of his victory at the US Open at his practice field and is feeling in just the right touch to pull another stellar victory at the Open.
This will not be the first time McIlroy will be playing at the Royal St. George’s. The young Irishman was part of the field at 2005 Home Internationals and also the British Amateur in the proceeding year and the golfer insisted that the course happens to
be one of his favourites.
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