McIlroy rescues a poor day

THE CARRIER pigeons brought the news to him, and Rory McIlroy wasn’t at all surprised. Yesterday, as he salvaged a level par 72 in the first round of the BMW PGA Championship with two closing birdies, the 20-year-old Ulsterman jumped jauntily out of the recorder’s hut and immediately endorsed Shane Lowry’s decision to join him on tour.

“I knew Shane was going to turn pro. It was a no-brainer, and I don’t think there was anything to wait for. Even the Walker Cup would have been a letdown compared to what he has done this last week. He has so much ahead of him.

“I mean, he’s already into the World Golf Championship in Akron. He’s 168th in the world and if he can improve on that he can get into the US PGA. He can qualify for the (British) Open. He can qualify for the US Open,” remarked McIlroy

So, then, no complaints from his friend on the fact that Lowry has become the 12th Irishman with a full tour card this season.

And, as a veteran of 51 (eight of them as an amateur) events on the European Tour, McIlroy – who’d spent the previous evening playing football with Darren Clarke’s two boys – had some advice for Lowry: “It’s still the same golf ball, you’re still playing with the same golf clubs. Everything is the same except you are playing for money.

“Just keep doing the same things, don’t try to change anything. The only thing you have to do out here is to prepare properly for a tournament and know the golf course. From there, it is a matter of hitting the shots . . . and he is very capable of hitting all the shots.”

The biggest challenge, according to McIlroy, is working out a schedule. “You play so much golf, maybe twice as much as you do as an amateur, and sometimes you are just going through the motions and those are the weeks you don’t do very well. You have to keep yourself fresh, you have to keep the hunger and keep the desire to play golf . . . when it’s not happening, you know it is time to take a break.

“But Shane can schedule better than some guys who have been out here 20 years. He is in a very fortunate position.”

Yesterday McIlroy showed his own ability to produce a score despite not firing on all cylinders. A double-bogey six on the third put him on the back foot straight away and, having reached the turn in two over, it was actually a rescued par five on the 12th – where he’d driven into a drain but conjured up a fabulous three-wood cut shot to the green after taking a penalty shot – that allowed some to “click” in his game.

It all came good on the two finishing par fives. He got up and down on the 17th and 18th for tap-in birdies that left him on level par. “I could easily have been five over par through five. Yet I hung in there well and got it back.

“I’m taking the positives from this. I turned a 76 into a 72, which is something I probably wouldn’t have been able to do last year.”

At least McIlroy’s late deeds brought him back into a position where he can still contend in the tournament, finishing the day five strokes behind joint leaders David Horsey, Anthony Wall and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, who all produced 67s.

Unfortunately, for the second tournament in a row, Michael Hoey had to withdraw, while Graeme McDowell, who signed for a 75, was visibly in some discomfort and went off for an MRI scan on his injured leg after his round. McDowell was forced to retire from the Irish Open in the third round and tournament doctor Roger Hawkes had advised him not to play here.

“I’m hoping it’s nothing that serious because obviously that’s three to four weeks out,” said a deflated McDowell. “I’m hoping it’s just bad inflammation. My main concern is getting fit at some point. The US Open obviously is the priority, but I wanted to be ready for this week.”

Hoey withdrew after feeling unwell on the 13th hole, where he’d just played his second shot from a bunker. He was one over at the time. His group called through the two groups behind, until Hoey made the decision not to continue and he was taken to a local hospital to be examined.

Afterwards, he explained: “I just feel dizzy. I’ve been struggling to get some sleep the last couple of weeks. I looked at my eyes the last few days and they’ve been dark underneath and they’ve never been like that.

“I’ve also got cold sores . . . the doctors have told me I’m fatigued.”

The Ulsterman, who won the Portuguese Open in April, still hopes to play in the US Open qualifying in Walton Heath on Monday and next week’s European Open.