Rather than the delight of blowing out any 22nd birthday candles, Rory McIlroy is striving to snuff out memories of his recent Masters and Malaysian Open meltdown.
McIlroy, who turns 22 tomorrow (WED) is defending this week’s Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina in a first visit back to the States since his Augusta final round anguish.
But while most talk has centred on McIlroy’s Augusta anguish, the World No. 6 revealed he spoke with former long-time World No. 1 Greg Norman who suggested McIlroy try and avoid all contact with the media.
In a similar scenario as McIlroy’s, Norman went into the final round of the ’96 Masters leading by six but lost by five.
“I spoke with Greg during the week of the Malaysian Open and his advice was ‘don’t listen to you guys (media),” said McIlroy.
“Greg just sort of said to me, don’t read golf magazines, don’t pick up the newspapers, don’t watch The Golf Channel.
“But then it’s hard not to. You want to keep up to date with what’s going on but you can’t let other people sort of influence what you are thinking and what you should do.
“I’ve taken my own views from what happened a few weeks ago and I’ve move on, and that’s the most important thing.
“I displayed a few weaknesses in my game, and it was just a bad back nine, a very bad back nine that sort of took the tournament away from me.
“But I’ve got three more Majors this year and hopefully dozens more that I’ll play in my career.”
Twelve months ago, McIlroy stunned the golf world posting a final round 62 to win the then Quail Hollow Championship from right under the nose of Phil Mickelson.
However the win remains McIlroy’s only success over the last 12 months.
Yesterday, (MON) he joined a number of his fellow Quail Hollow contestants and caddies in tackling a local Charlotte side but was on the wrong end of a 7 to 4 drubbing.
But while enjoying the occasion, McIlroy again sought to put into perspective his life given he went so close to being fitted with golf’s most sought out item of apparel.
“I got a lot of text messages, a lot of emails, more congratulating me on how I handled everything afterwards,” he said.
“I really appreciated that but what else was I going to do? I can’t come off and sulk and say ‘oh, this is the worst day of my life because a bad day on the golf course is better than a good day in the office.
“So I’ve got over what happened at Augusta in a couple of days.
“I was fine. It was great I had a chance to win a first Major, but it’s golf. It’s only golf at the end of the day. No one died. I am very happy with my life, very happy with what’s going on, very happy with my game.
“And I am looking forward to this week.”
