Rory’s turn.
Last week we checked out a semi-rusty Jason Day. We saw that Dustin Johnson’s putter wasn’t quite ready to put him in Sunday contention and that Jordan Spieth has work to do.
Now it’s time for the world’s No. 2 to show us what he’s got.
Rory McIlroy enters the South African Open this week as the man to beat. He’s No. 2 in the world and has had no problems getting off to good starts in past seasons.
He’s had plenty of time off since he won the FedEx Cup. He’s been practicing in the Middle East for the past week before he hopped over to South Africa. He’s been on safari the past few days and even got up close and personal with the King Of The Jungle.
On top of that, he’s been woken up in the wee hours of the morning by a Tiger. Yep, there’s something brewing on the horizon between one Tiger Woods and McIlroy. Like many other young stars, McIlroy has a fascination of sorts with Woods. A lot of that comes from curiosity. Woods, who leads a Howard Hughes-like hidden-away on his Jupiter Island compound sort of lifestyle, has that effect on people.
McIlroy, through the Nike connection, has run into Woods more often than most. He’s even invited Woods to dinner at times, the two live very close to each other, Rory’s right down the road on the intercoastal waterway in Jupiter, less than 15 minutes from Woods. Typically Woods will decline, unusual when you consider that Tiger owns his own restaurant there — Woods Jupiter.
But Woods is very much the hermit. Such is life when you go from squeaky-clean golf hero to disgraced adulterer and the big-time tabloids are now all over you — for life. Woods hides.
“I could not live like that,” McIlroy recently said.
Instead, McIlroy can pretty much come and go as he pleases with fiancée Erika Stoll. The two are probably going to tie the knot sometime this year. In the meantime, McIlroy’s got work to do.
He’ll start Thursday at the Glendower Golf Club in the City of Ekurhuleni, South Africa.
There’s no lack of confidence from the world’s No. 2.
“I know that if I play the way I can, then I will have a good chance to win,” McIlroy said. We know what that means, he needs a high-B or low “A” game.
One challenge for McIlroy this week will be the new equipment in his bag.
McIlroy spent the week before Christmas in Dubai, testing new stuff. This week he’s going with the new Callaway Epic driver and irons. He’ll play the Titleist golf ball and the Vokey wedges by Titleist. His putter is an Odyssey model. McIlroy also said that all of that stuff in his bag is subject to change. No final decisions yet.
In the meantime, hopefully McIlroy, now that he’s on the other side of the world, won’t be getting any texts at 4 a.m. from Woods, who McIlroy tells us is often in the gym at that early hour.
It’s time for McIlroy to give the world an idea as to the early state of his golf game.
There are four majors up for grabs and no clear-cut favorites.
And don’t forget about the guy in the gym at 4 a.m.
