Rory McIlroy’s year began with a coronation. He was the star attraction at what felt like a rock concert, with music blaring and lasers flashing in a room at Abu Dhabi to celebrate the No. 1 player in golf joining Nike’s stable.
It ended on Sunday with a bogey on the ninth hole at Sherwood Country Club with hardly anyone watching.
An off season never looked more appealing to him.
“It’s been a long season, a long stretch,” McIlroy said after signing for a 70 to finish 11th in an 18-man field at the World Challenge in California. “I’m excited to put the clubs down for a little bit, have a few weeks’ rest and get after it at the start of the new year.”
He won’t have to worry about new equipment next year. He spent the last nine months doing that.
Expectations are sure to be lower.
A year ago, McIlroy was the clear No. 1 in golf. He was coming off another record win in a major — an eight-shot victory in the US PGA Championship — and threw his game into overdrive with two FedEx Cup playoff wins and money titles on both sides of the Atlantic by closing his season with a win in Dubai.
It looked as if he would be there for many years. It lasted three months.
There were equipment issues, a product of changing everything at once instead of slowly working the swoosh into his bag, as Tiger Woods did a decade earlier. He changed management companies, which ordinarily is a seamless transition unless the split is ugly.
McIlroy is scheduled to be in a courtroom in Ireland not long after the Ryder Cup next year. So yes, this is ugly. According to reports in Irish newspapers, he split with girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki at least twice, maybe three times. Except it wasn’t true. The tennis star was at Sherwood all week, an ever-present smile.
“It’s been the first year I’ve had to put up with scrutiny and criticism,” McIlroy said. “You just have to believe in what you’re doing and not let it get to you too much. I let it get to me a few times.”
Woods went through his first “slump” at age 22 in his second full year as a pro.
“As far as battling a slump, that’s just part of playing golf,” Woods said. “You play golf long enough, you’re going to go through it.”
The great ones emerge. And they don’t stay in slumps for long.
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