World No. 1 Rory McIlroy is staring at a second fine in just under two months after hurling a club during the opening round defence of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
McIlroy didn’t hide his frustration throwing his Nike 3-wood club some 30 yards after his second shot into the 17th hole flew the green on route to a very no frills one under par 71.
It left McIlroy trailing six shots behind Ryder Cup winning team-mate Francesco Molinari who birdied his closing two holes in a seven-under par 65 to be one clear of Sweden’s Robert Karlsson.
Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez, and the Tour’s oldest champion, was among a group tied in third place at four under par while Belgium bomber Nicolas Colsaerts packed a new Callaway ‘Mini’ Driver into his bag and hitting the second longest drive all day.
World No. 1 Rory McIlroy staring at a fine after a club throwing incident at the 17th hole on day one of the BMW PGA Championship. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)
“It’s like a 2-wood on steroids”, said Colsaerts smiling.
But then McIlroy could probably do with a dose of steroids and showing the signs of now having played 280 competitive holes of golf in 24 days since the start of the WGC – Cadillac World Match-Play earlier this month.
As well, Sunday night’s trans-Atlantic flight and a hectic schedule since arriving in London seems to be taking a toll on McIlroy as evident in frustratingly hurling his wedge at the ‘Burma Roads’ penultimate hole.
“Physically I’m all right,” he said.
“Mentally I feel I’m getting in the way of myself and I’m getting a little bit angry which I haven’t been doing the last few weeks.
Rory McIlroy shoots a one under par 71 on the opening day in his defence of the BMW PGA Championship. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
“I just sort of need to stay in control of my emotions because I feel like that’s one of the things, if I’m tired or a little mentally fatigued, I’ll start to be hard on myself and start to get down on myself.
“So I will try not to do that over the next few days and just try and get as much rest as I’ve been getting and I should be fine.”
McIlroy’s club-throwing incident will be discussed at the next Tuesday’s Tournament Players Committee meeting at Royal County Down and it comes some six weeks after he hurled a club into one of the many water hazards during the WGC – Cadillac Championship at Trump Doral in suburban Miami.
It is believed McIlroy was fined by the PGA Tour but then the Tour, like the European Tour, will never publically announce the extent of any fine.
A PGA Tour video clip of the incident at Trump Doral on Youtube.com has attracted over 800,000 hits.
