tim;rosaforte
fewer;starts;would;benefit;rory
i’m not worried about rory
mcilroy selling himself out,
maxing out on his fame, his
ranking or his popularity, all
of which are immense on
a global scale. missing the
cut in the ubs Hong Kong
open is no cause for alarm,
certainly not the week after
he clinched the european
tour’s race to dubai.
the temptations that go
with being the game’s no.
1 player. whether it was
with chandler’s management group in 2011 or conor
ridge’s in 2012, mcilroy has
spent his final quarter doing
what global players do at
this time of year, chasing the
buck without considering
the downside. “i now look
back over the last couple of
years wondering: ‘why did i
stretch myself too much?’”
mcilroy said after four-putting his final green to miss
the cut by three and promising to cut back his schedule
in 2013.
urban golf challenge he
won between the skyscrapers in downtown Hong Kong
on the night before the
opening round.
halfway around the world
for the cimb classic in
malaysia and the exhibition
with mcilroy before heading
back to his base in florida.
what concerns me is this
is the second consecutive
year that mcilroy has taken
too many bites of the apple,
so to speak. where he has
reached this phase of the
schedule and pleaded burnout. where he has filled out
his schedule with events like
the “duel at Jinsha lake”
against tiger woods the
day after finishing second in
the bmw masters, or agent
chubby chandler’s eight-man exhibition, the turkish
airlines world golf final.
the ubs tournament is
an official european tour
event and used government
money to pay mcilroy. tour-
nament organizers issued a
statement in support of their
defending champion, prais-
ing him as an ambassador
for the tournament both on
and off the course by partici-
pating in “numerous media
engagements and sponsor’s
commitments,” like the
the globetrotting and cor-
porate schmoozing did not
affect mcilroy in 2012 un-
less you’re hypercritical. He
didn’t win until march, but
that was in a duel against
tiger woods in the final
round of the Honda classic.
He missed the cut at the u.s.
open but finished strong by
winning the pga champi-
onship at Kiawah island and
two playoff events, the bar-
clays and the deutsche bank
championship. combined,
he made more than $9.6
million on the two tours.
rory needs a base. His
compound in northern
ireland is up for sale. He
rents a place in palm beach
county during the winter.
the rest of his time he
lives on the road, a lifestyle
similar to girlfriend caroline
wozniacki, the former no.
1 tennis player in the world
who accompanied him to
Hong Kong. eventually, he
will find the balance. until
then, expect the odd week
where he performs like he
did in Hong Kong.
what these cash grabs
represent—along with the
millions he will make in his
next equipment deal—are
what young mcilroy has to
do, and he’s only 23, is learn
from his buddy woods.
tiger was guilty of over-
scheduling in the late 1990s
but learned how to manage
appearance fees and exhibi-
tions. on his most recent
trip to asia, woods traveled
cover //contents //10 tHings // lpga tour // european tour // eQuipment // tim ROsAfORte
