European Ryder Cup captain, Paul McGinley has sympathised with struggling double Major winner Rory McIlroy, and who he describes is living a ‘‘rock star’ lifestyle as he seeks to win for a first time this season.
It has now been seven months since McIlroy last tasted success in capturing the European Tour season-ending DP World Tour Championship when he birdied the closing five holes to deny England’s Justin Rose.
The closest the current World No. 2 ranked McIlroy has come to victory this year was finishing runner-up in the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio.
And with qualifying for the 2014 European Ryder Cup team now just two months away McGinley’s believes the ‘rock star’ golfer will eventually qualify automatically for his Gleneagles team.
Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki atop of the tallest building in the southern Hemisphere and part of the ‘rock star’ lifestyle Paul McGinley talks of. (Photo – Caroline Wozniacki)
“Rory is a young kid and he’s learning, and what he’s gone through is quite incredible for a 24‑year‑old and how he’s behaved and how he’s managed himself is extremely impressive,” said McGinley.
“I got a real eye opener at Medinah last year. It was the first time I’ve really seen him up close in America and how big he is.
“Rory is a young kid, he’s made a couple of mistakes here and there, but in general his behaviour is astonishingly good and we should be proud the way he’s carried himself considering the way his brand is so strong and so big, particularly in America.
It’s quite incredible.
“I was also taken back by the interest people had of him in America. It was like being with a rock star when you’re walking from the green to a tee or if you’re hanging around going to the courtesy cars afterwards.
“There would be hundreds of people hanging over the barriers shouting his name and looking for his autograph, and that’s the same every week in America for him; a real eye opener for me.
“The Irish people, and certainly for me, sitting back here and watching him on TV you don’t realise what goes on behind the scenes and what he has to putt up and what he has to deal with and I think he handles it extremely well.
“There’s a lot more to come from Rory, there’s no doubt.
“But as I say, he’s going to be an up‑and‑down, that’s the way he is. Everybody is different and one of the reasons why he’s so exciting is the fact that he’s up‑and‑down.
“That’s one of the reasons why Seve was so exciting, he was up‑and‑down, too. I think that’s the X‑factor that Rory has. He can win every week.”
McIlroy will be returning to competition this week for a first time since finishing mid-field in last fortnight’s US Open at Merion and looking to win the Irish Open for a first time in his career.
