'F' word etched on Irish faces

Philip Reidtalks to some of the Irish contingent, who are glad to see the back of Wentworth's West Course

THE “F” word, as in frustration, was etched into many an Irish face on exiting the recorder’s hut behind the 18th green at Wentworth yesterday. Rory McIlroy had the look. So too Shane Lowry. So too Paul McGinley, who described the old and new West Course as “different animals,” but – being a golf course designer himself and a friend of Ernie Els – stepped back from blatant criticism. “Doctors don’t criticise other doctors,” he observed, with some diplomacy.

Still, for one and all, there was a sense that the road back down Wentworth Drive – be it to a corporate gig in Royal Birkdale in McIlroy’s case, to Walton Heath for today’s US Open international qualifying for Lowry or the short hop home to Sunningdale in McGinley’s – brought a measure of relief as the focus turns to other challenges in the days and weeks ahead.

“I felt a bit handcuffed on the course. I couldn’t really do anything (right),” claimed McIlroy, who will hope that a stint back across the Atlantic in the coming weeks will provide some invigoration. “It’s hard to get going around here, hard to get any momentum. It was one of those weeks when I was playing to get in and get out of here.”

Any positives? “I don’t really know. Not much,” said McIlroy, who shot a closing 73 for 289, five over. The 21-year-old Ulsterman – who conducts a corporate day in Birkdale today – will have a week off before turning for a three-week stint in the States that takes in the Memorial tournament next week, then the St Jude Classic in Memphis and will be completed by the US Open in Pebble Beach.

“I’ll be glad to get to the Memorial, which is a great golf course. I’ll be glad to get back playing a decent golf course, I suppose.” McIlroy added: “I just feel very frustrated, because I felt I was coming in here playing pretty well. It’s (typical) of most of my season. I feel like I’m playing well but not getting the most out of it. Yet, there’s weeks where it all comes together and it works. It’s hard to enjoy yourself when you’re down the bottom of the field. I hate going out in the morning on Sundays, it’s crap. You don’t feel part of the tournament.”

Frustration! It was a common emotion, with Lowry – who finished with a 75 for 292 – nevertheless taking a philosophical view. “I just wasn’t firing on all cylinders for the whole week but stepping on to any course after this one is going to seem easy,” remarked Lowry, with particular emphasis on the US Open qualifying at Walton Heath, where he will be one of six Irish players seeking a place in the field for Pebble Beach.

Lowry will be joined at Walton Heath by Graeme McDowell (provisionally) and also by Gareth Maybin, Gary Murphy, Peter Lawrie and Darren Clarke.

But not by McGinley, who underwent his eighth knee operation last December. Unable to play 36-holes in the same day, McGinley has decided to bypass Walton Heath – but he left Wentworth with a degree of frustration, particularly because of his finish in Saturday’s third round (where he went bogey-bogey-double bogey) having played his way into contention.

“It was one of the most disappointing finishes I have ever had in professional golf,” he said, adding: “I’ve had some bad finishes and lost tournaments but that finish on Saturday just knocked the stuffing out of me. To play as well as I did and to get myself right into the heart of the tournament, totally in control but then to drop four shots in the last three holes, and not particularly to be hitting a bad shot either was hard. That’s why I didn’t get much sleep on Saturday night.”