New World No. 1 Tiger Woods sent struggling Rory McIlroy a timely text message ahead of next month’s Masters – ‘Get your finger out of your ass and win this week’s Shell Houston Open’.
McIlroy is returning to the PGA Tour for a first time in a fortnight and in his final tournament ahead of the April 11th starting first Major Championship of the season at Augusta National.
Rory McIlroy gets a pretty ‘to the point’ text reply message from Tiger Woods ahead of this week’s Shell Houston Open.
The 23-year old Northern Irishman tees up in America’s fourth largest city having broken 70 just one in nine stroke play rounds including a pair of 75s to start his new season in Abu Dhabi.
And on Monday, McIlroy’s 208-day reign as World No. 1 ended when Woods captured a record-equalling eighth PGA Tour event in capturing the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando.
As McIlroy took to the Redstone course in suburban Humble, Woods helped lead his Albany team to success in the Tavistock Cup in Orlando.
However before teeing-up in the Singles shootout he received a congratulatory text message from McIlroy.
“I thought I would just let it all sort of die down a bit after his win yesterday so I texted him this morning.
“I hadn’t spoken to Tiger for a couple of weeks but I sent him a text this morning congratulating him on his win and saying: ‘Well done’.
“Tiger got back to me and told me to get my finger out of my ass and win this week.”
And when www.golfbytourmiss. com mentioned the text to McIlroy later while he was playing a practice round, McIlroy admitted that was a toned down version of what Woods texted him.
Last Friday, McIlroy was spotted in shorts at the Miami Municipal Golf Course where you pay $5 for a buckets of balls.
However McIlroy took his own Nike balls and was allowed to use the range.
“It was fine as I brought my own balls with me and they collected them for me, and then gave them to me the next day,” said McIlroy.
“It was nice and the turf was okay. People left me alone. And even though it’s a public golf course, of course it’s going to be okay (smiling). But everyone was totally fine.
“I was actually hitting balls on Saturday night at Jonovich Golf Club and Caroline was there, too. It was a good week, fun week. And I actually got some good practice in so it was nice.”
