Rory McIlroy is on a professional roll — and this week he takes his monster drives and rebuilt short game to the U.K. for the DP World Tour’s flagship event — the BMW PGA Championship.
It’s a lot of work being Defender Of The Faith for the PGA Tour, now he’s off to stately Wentworth to take on that Defender Of The Faith role for the DP World Tour.
There’s a bunch of Defectors in the field for this prominent event but Rory’s not alone in trying to keep them out of the Sunday winner’s circle. Jon Rahm, U.S. Open champ Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, defending champion Billy Horschel, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott and newly-commissioned European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald are all on hand to give it a run.
The Defector Lineup has Abe Ancer, Talor (the) Gooch, Patrick (Table For One) Reed, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Bernd Wiesberger and Ian (pants) Poulter, among others.
Naturally no one’s very happy about Defectors in the house with the exception of The Lamest Commissioner In All The Land (aka Greg Norman). The Defectors already received a not-so-flattering memo from DP World CEO Keith Pelley.
Rory made his position known a few weeks ago:
“I hate what it’s (LIV) doing to the game of golf. I hate it. I really do. Like it’s going to be hard for me to stomach going to Wentworth in a couple of weeks’ time and seeing 18 of them there. That just doesn’t sit right with me. So yeah, I feel strongly. I believe what I’m saying are the right things, and I think when you believe that what you’re saying is the right things, you’re happy to stick your neck out on the line.”
Fitzpatrick, who is back in his homeland simply said “it will be weird” playing alongside a number of Defectors this week.
Fact of the matter is that The Defectors are desperate for world ranking points and here’s a chance to snatch a few given the strength of the field with the likes of Rory, Rahm, Viktor, Billy, Shane, Tommy and Adam teeing it up.
As for the course itself, Horschel had a great week, shooting 19-under par for the victory.
McIlroy missed the field last year but he’s the points-leader on the European Tour and is eye-balling that Race To Dubai title to go along with his FedEx Cup championship.
The field may need “the waterproofs” as Sir Nick Faldo often referred to rain suits. There’s been wet weather in the London area and it’s expected to continue at least the first two rounds.
In the meantime, the G4D Tour (golf for the disabled) will have their time at Wentworth today and Tuesday.
As we get to Thursday and Friday, Pelley has done his best to give The Defectors the old cold shoulder. The cameras have been ordered not to show any of them.
Now one way The Defectors can blow that mandate up is to play really well and get into some of the final groups on Saturday and Sunday.
Hard to imagine some of them ending up in a group with McIlroy.
Ouch.
2 Comments
baxter cepeda
Rory is concerned for the rank and file euro tours players fighting to retain their cards whom did not qualify into wentworth partly because of the LIv guys in the field; who are there for much needed world rank points.
But this begs the question since Rory has money, points, fame, altruism or whatever, why not give up his spot if these journeymen are that important?
Oh yea he wants to take their season points money as he has done previously, even thou most of his points are garnered at majors; not many events played on the actual obscure events of the DP world tour.
My take is quite simple. Whether it’s 48 or 156 or 300+ players on multiple courses, pro golf tours need to aim for the best field possible. That’s the best thing for any tour and by extension it’s members. Tours that leave out better players than what they have are simply not helping themselves or their players.
Like it or not, The bmw and the DP world tour benefit from LIv guys being at wentworth.
Tom Edrington
I saw Sergio, who wants to play on the Ryder Cup, open with 76…..typical over-the-hill LIV guy who can’t win anymore. Rory has long been a huge supporter of the DP World/European Tour and his presence brings out big crowds…..huge turnout at Wentworth on opening day, following Rory, defending champ Billy Horschel and US Open champ Matt Fitz…….