Concern relating to participation in golf is at odds with a recurring sense of theatre attached to the sport’s top level. Joined-up thinking might even explore opportunities to link the two.
Each of this year’s majors has offered up an eye-catching storyline. At Augusta National, Rory McIlroy’s quest to complete a clean sweep of majors dominated. The US Open and Open Championship were intrinsically linked to one man: Jordan Spieth. The build-up to the US PGA Championship, which begins on Thursday at Whistling Straits, has seen attention divert firmly towards McIlroy once again. The fact he has been partnered with Spieth for rounds one and two only adds spice to an already tantalising scenario.
Will, or won’t, the world No1 return from the ankle ligament injury sustained during a 4 July football game to defend the Wanamaker Trophy? The question lingered for weeks. Every suggestion, as posted by the Northern Irishman on social media, is that he will take his place in the field barring an unforeseen breakdown in his recovery. (He played all 18 holes of the course on Saturday with no signs of discomfort.) McIlroy’s tactic maybe belied the theory that golf exists in a world of plus-fours and carrier pigeons.
Feels good to hit the driver again! 👍💪⛳️ https://t.co/3z07ujIehH
— Rory Mcilroy (@McIlroyRory) August 6, 2015
If McIlroy’s sponsors were irked by the scenario which triggered his absence from the Open, surely some bridges will have been rebuilt by the mass attention diverted towards the golfer’s brand by a drip-feed of information. That policy in itself offered a nod towards McIlroy’s character; nobody speaks for him or controls when such messages appear.
The unwillingness to state categorically that he will play in the US PGA, even with a week to go, offered leeway for further fitness woes. It would be a surprise if they arise, though, given the expert assistance McIlroy has on hand from the renowned fitness coach and physiotherapist Dr Stephen McGregor.
McIlroy has taken breaks from golf before and returned without any apparent problem. The issue on this occasion would be a straightforward one, concerning whether or not there is any sense of what would only seem natural tentativeness in his golf swing. All the medical support and strapping in the world cannot always convince the brain to commit 100%.
The last major of the year holds clear appeal for the 26-year-old; since 2009 he is an aggregate 34 under par at the event, which tops such a chart. McIlroy has a US PGA scoring average in the same spell of under 70, again the best in golf. He has shot 11 rounds in the 60s and a total of 110 birdies; neither record has been bettered in the last six years.
There have been warnings towards McIlroy from elsewhere. Notah Begay, the Golf Channel analyst and close friend of Tiger Woods – the latter relationship presumably offers insight into what injuries can do to a golfer – offered one. “It might be a bad idea for McIlroy to come back because you can’t hold back those competitive fires,” Begay said. “You get out there and your body wants to go and your mind knows what to do but if you’re not 100%, you risk the rest of the season or possibly hurting something else.”
McIlroy’s own explanation of mindset will prove fascinating when it arrives during a media conference on Wednesday. Unlike Woods, he has spoken before of a desire simply to compete at certain championships without a necessity to win. But not, crucially, those of the major variety.
It may also be the case, albeit denial is likely, that Spieth’s continued prominence and now threat to McIlroy’s position at the summit of the world rankings has enhanced the four-times major winner’s desire to return.
Woods will be part of the field but is not fancied by any serious onlooker to challenge. Spieth’s year so far, added to the natural uncertainty about what state McIlroy’s game will be in, justify the young Texan’s status as favourite. Added, that is, to the fact that Spieth instantly took to Whistling Straits upon visiting recently. “I thought it was a phenomenal golf course,” he said.
Dustin Johnson, another player who has featured prominently in the narrative of this golfing year, would be forgiven a rueful smile as be returns to Wisconsin. Johnson expected to be in a play-off for the 2010 US PGA at Whistling Straits when he holed out on the 72nd green, only to be informed he had illegally grounded his club in a bunker. For all Johnson’s major woes are linked to mental weakness, this was a forgivable error in an essentially undefined area. Some bunkers there are the size of a footprint.
Johnson, Martin Kaymer – who went on to defeat Bubba Watson in the sudden death format five years ago – and others will inevitably claim an element of attention in the coming days. Yet so far, one man’s shadow has lengthened over the 97th playing of the US PGA Championship. It is Rory McIlroy’s intention to keep things that way.
