Crooked Stick, Carmel, IN … Double Deutsche Bank champion Rory McIlroy has singled his ‘pet peeve’ by taking a swipe at those ready to criticising him for being a ‘gym rat’ by spending too much time in the gym.
On Monday, McIlroy rode the remnants of Hurricane Hermine and storm his way to capturing a first PGA Tour title in some 15 months with his second victory in four years at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.
McIlroy celebrated the U.S. Labor Day public holiday to win by two shots and jump to fifth overall on the FedEx Cup points table and with just two events remaining including this week’s BMW Championship that McIlroy won four years ago and in the week after his inaugural Deutsch Bank triumph.
However, before heading west to the Indiana capital and the motor racing capital of the world, the new World No. 3 delivered a message to many ready to single him out as a ‘gym groupie’.
Rory McIlroy’s ‘pet peev’ is those who knock him for working out in the gym.
In particular, McIlroy was singling out the likes of fellow US Open winner, Johnnie Miller who said McIlroy was getting like Tiger Woods.
“Same thing with Tiger Woods as you just get carried away with wearing the tight shirts and showing off their muscles,” said Miller.
McIlroy responded: “I don’t know if any criticism is unfair but when people make judgments or criticisms without being educated on the subject that they’re criticizing, I think that’s ‑‑ like for me getting in the gym, for example, that’s my pet peeve.
“Someone that says to me you’re in the gym too much. The reason that I play at such a high level, and hopefully will continue to play at a high level for the next 10, 15 years is because of the work I did in the gym.
“If I wasn’t in the gym, I wouldn’t be here sitting today. It’s a big part of who I am, it’s a big part of my success. That’s always I feel an unfair criticism.
“But with my game, the critics and the analysts and everyone that are out there, they’re educated about golf, so they for the most part know what they’re talking about.
“A criticism of my golf game, I take it, and I know what I need to work on and sometimes those people point out the obvious but, yeah, I would say that’s the most unfair criticism I receive, is what I do in the gym.”
McIlroy jetted into Indianapolis late afternoon Monday to begin preparations for Thursday’s start to the BMW Championship at the Crooked Stick course located north of the Indiana capital.
