If Rory McIlroy treats his rivals with the same contempt he dished out to one of America’s top college golfers who crassly heckled him at The Players Championship, then there will be only one recipient of the £3.5 million first prize on Sunday.
McIlroy’s first-round 67, to leave him one shot off the pace, was commendable and, apart from his erratic driving, his form bodes well for his latest attempt to complete the career grand slam at next month’s Masters.
Yet the talk of the range centred on the bizarre incident that occurred in the build-up to this £19.5 million tournament.
Playing a practice round in his preparations for the PGA Tour’s flagship event, the 35-year-old pulled a drive into the water on the 18th, an error that was greeted by a discernible remark of “just like in Augusta in 2011”.
It was a reference to his infamous final-round capitulation and his wild hook on the 10th that precipitated the collapse and understandably the Northern Irishman did not see the humour.
After reloading, he turned and calmly strode towards his abuser, before asking to see his phone. The youth looked stunned and duly handed it over to McIlroy who then walked away with the mobile.
It was later revealed that the miscreant is a highly-rated amateur, who on Monday won a big college event at the nearby Sawgrass Country Club.
Luke Potter, 20, is tipped to be on Tour in a few years’ time and that could lead to an awkward encounter with McIlroy after he was ejected from the grounds here. Potter has sent an apology to McIlroy, as well as to Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and his coach revealed “he’s got a hole in his heart”.
“Luke had no idea that what was coming out of his mouth was going to result in this fashion,” John Fields added to Golf.com. “With regards to our University of Texas program, I mean it’s an embarrassing moment. It is particularly sensitive to me because our program is built on respect for the game.”
It seems, Potter, who, in 2019, became the first high school golfer since Tiger Woods to be named California Freshman Athlete of the Year, will now face disciplinary measures.
“How we handle [the incident] is extremely important, and suffice to say Luke’s paying the consequences of that,” Fields said. “Going forward he’s going to be a better man. I would tell you that we coach 18- to 22-year-olds on a normal basis and they don’t always make the right call. That’s my responsibility as a coach and, when they do make a mistake, it’s a learning moment.”
After his round, McIlroy declined to offer the exact details of a video clip that inevitably has gone viral on social media. But it is understood that he gave the phone to security who handed it back to Potter before booting him out.
After his five-under heroics, McIlroy was quizzed about the affair.
“Can I ask you about the shenanigans with the kid on 17?”
“No, you can’t,” McIlroy replied.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you to,” McIlroy said, laughing
“The whole thing was made stranger by the fact that it wasn’t a civilian, that it was a player,” came the next query. “Did you know that, and did it surprise you when you found out?
But McIlroy, very generously, was not about to make Potter’s humiliation even worse. “I’m really happy that I shot 67 today,” he said with a grin.
Inside he must have been seething. It was not the first time this season that McIlroy has been angered by loudmouths in the gallery. At last month’s Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines, a fan screamed at the world No 2, “blame your caddie!” after he missed a makeable putt. “Shut the f--- up,” was McIlroy’s immediate and uncompromising response.
The point is that while the golfers should probably expect the odd insult in the Ryder Cup – and particularly in the New York bearpit of Bethpage Black where, in September, Team USA will host Europe – they should not feel targeted on a practice day in a PGA Tour event and certainly not by an individual who should know better.
Potter met Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth in his visit to the Stadium Course, but then decided to hurl an insult at someone to whom he should be looking up.
The unseemly episode detracted from an entertaining opening day on which McIlroy’s driving remained all over the place – he hit only four fairways – but which he essentially saved with a fine short game and putting display.
But it was the remarkable recovery from the pine-straw on the 18th – ironically the same par-four where he was heckled – that tops a highlights reel containing seven birdies.
After pushing his drive into the trees, he conjured a running eight-iron from 160 yards to within eight feet of the pin. Americans Lucas Glover and JJ Spaun lead the way, along with Colombian Camilo Villegas. England’s Aaron Rai is on four-under, with Scheffler, who played with McIlroy, one further back, alongside Scotland’s Bob MacIntyre.
Thomas and Fitzpatrick among big names suffering at Sawgrass
And so they trudged in, tight-lipped and forlorn. The Marquis de Sawgrass had struck again, although there was clearly no joy in their suffering.
First came Justin Thomas with a 78. There followed Matt Fitzpatrick with the same grim number after finishing with a triple-bogey at the infamous island-green 17th and then a double-bogey on the 18th. Taking up the rear in this capitulation of the big names was Viktor Hovland, with a horrendous eight-over 80.
The first round of The Players Championship was restating the Stadium Course’s penchant for inflicting personal grief and this particular procession of the damned would have cheered up the late architect Pete Dye – “The Evil Genius”, himself – immensely.
Europe captain Luke Donald will doubtless be worried by the continuing problems for Fitzpatrick and Hovland, both members of his victorious team in 2023. Neither wanted to talk afterwards and seeing as Fitzpatrick was taken off for a random drugs test that took well over half an hour before he could produce the requisite sample, his silence was perhaps understandable.
Alas, the same could not be said for Thomas – and especially for the American’s agent who arrogantly employed the throat-slash gesture to signal that no, her client would not be communicating – following his missive to his colleagues.
In his role on the PGA Tour’s 16-player advisory council, Thomas sent a memo to his fellow golfers six weeks ago urging for the too-often guarded to be more open with the media.
“We’re incredibly lucky to have many passionate people tuning in to watch us every week, but let’s be honest—this game can feel a little distant at times,” Thomas wrote. “The more I think about it, the more I feel us giving more access and insight can make a world of difference.”
US players lambasted for snubbing interviews
In a fortnight in which another two-time major-winner in Collin Morikawa was criticised by a former fan favourite for refusing to talk following his close call at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday, the issue of the game’s most popular performers swerving the microphones is, ironically, a hot talking point.
“Just heated, just p----d,’’ Morikawa said as a way of explanation on Tuesday. “No offence to you guys [reporters], but for me in the moment of that time, I didn’t want to be around anyone. I didn’t want to talk to anyone.
“I was just drained. I just didn’t want to talk to anyone, and I think that’s fair to myself. I don’t owe anyone anything.’’
Rocco Mediate palpably does not agree on the last point, pointing out that the 28-year-old has earned more than $40 million on the course and probably at least that much off it. “Biggest bunch of horses---, you could ever say, period,” Mediate, the six-time Tour winner, said on his Sirius radio show. “I mean, that is the dumbest, most selfish garbage you could ever say.
“Mr [Arnold] Palmer would’ve hunted him down. Trust me on that one because he told me one thing that stuck with me. ‘You know what, Rock, it’s real easy to go in and talk to somebody when you won or when you’ve played well, but can you do it when you don’t? That’s the key’.
“Your job is to tell people what happened. I don’t give a s--- about your workout in the morning and all that other c--p. Tell me what happened. You lost? You lost. You got beat? That’s what happens. Guess what? Golf’s hard.”
Glover boosts his chances to make Bethpage
With the prize funds at record levels – the purse here is £19.5 million and the winner will receive £3.5 million – there are fears that the economics are unsustainable and Thomas’s plea for his colleagues to “get the younger age group interested and watch our sport” makes sense as does his conclusion that “we all owners of this tour and this [granting more media access] could make a huge difference in our popularity”.
However, for Thomas, it seems to be a case of easier said than done when it comes to not saying anything. Naturally, those at the other end of the leaderboard were all smiles and quips, including Aaron Rai, on four-under after a 68, two behind early clubhouse leader Lucas Glover.
The Englishman is from Wolverhampton, but enjoys local knowledge here as he resides just up the road and plays this course “four or five times a week” on his off weeks. A top-three finish on Sunday could a long way to sealing Rai’s Ryder Cup debut in New York in September. The quiet 30-year-old is 24th in the world rankings and is already a winner in the US. Rai’s candidature for Bethpage is gathering pace.
