Rory McIlroy is ready to get off his Peloton bike and get back to his day job. He’s done his share of jigsaw puzzles and laying by the pool.
“It’s probably the most tanned my pasty Irish skin has ever been,” he said.
McIlroy, who paired with Dustin Johnson to win the TaylorMade Driving Relief charity match against Rickie Fowler and Matt Wolff, has been playing some money games near his home with the likes of Johnson, Fowler and reigning British Open champion Shane Lowry, and is raring to go for his debut at famed Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, home to the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m as sharp as I can be coming in here,” McIlroy said.“There’s no reason why I’m not still.”
The World No. 1 was playing some of the best golf of his career when the PGA Tour season was suspended on March 12 due to coronavirus concerns, but McIlroy doesn’t believe the 3-month layoff will slow down his title pursuit.
“It actually gave me an opportunity to work on a few things,” he said.
[vertical-gallery id=778047874]
But it also gave McIlroy time to reflect on the bigger picture of the professional golf landscape. As a dual member of the PGA Tour and European Tour, McIlroy has talked often about the challenges of being a true international player in the modern era. He was the most outspoken player in denouncing the upstart Premier Golf League, a potential rival league to the PGA Tour with financial backing tied to Saudi Arabia.
While the PGA Tour is set to resume its season, the European Tour, which suspended its season on March 8, has been hard hit due to the global coronavirus pandemic and won’t return to action until July 22. It has had to lower purses and inform players that perks such as player lounges and courtesy cars will “assume a different appearance, if indeed they are present at all,” European Tour CEO Keith Pelley wrote to tour members in April.
Betting odds | Fantasy | By the rankings | Tee times, TV info
“It’s not great when they’re having to do things and they’re taking such a financial hit because of the coronavirus and this pandemic. So am I concerned? Yes,” McIlroy said. “But I don’t know what else I can do. I don’t feel like I’m responsible for the health of the Tour. I’m a player; I play on the Tour and I’m very grateful for the opportunity that they’ve provided me over the years.”
McIlroy says the pandemic has highlighted the fact that the game of golf at the highest level needs to be simplified.
“I think there’s too many funnels, there’s too many channels. I don’t know if everything being under one umbrella is the solution, but definitely fewer umbrellas I think is a way forward, and I think that’s what — trying to sort of figure out everything as we’ve been going along, and I think the major championship organizations and the bigger governing bodies in the game of golf have realized that there’s so many moving parts, and I think more cohesion in the game is better,” he said. “I’m not saying that it’s been a good thing, but at the same time, I think it’s opened some people’s eyes up to the fact that we can all sort of work a little bit better together in this world.”
One world tour?
The concept of a world golf tour has been bandied about for some time, but McIlroy suggested the global pandemic – not to mention the efforts of a rival league – could be the impetus to bring it to fruition. Does McIlroy support the concept of one world tour?
“I’ve sort of been calling for it for a while. Yeah, I would like to see that,” McIlroy said. “I think for the health of both tours, a world tour is something I’ve always wanted, but it had to be done the right way. I think the PGL coming in and trying to do it their way wasn’t the right thing, so trying to make change from within the game already and not letting an outsider come in is the right way to do it, so I’d be supportive of that, for sure.”
“Whether it’s some European Tour events offering FedEx Cup points and some PGA Tour events offering Race to Dubai points, I don’t know, but yeah, just a little bit more cohesion, and then I think, as well, trying to figure out the schedule going forward this year,” McIlroy added. “I think the more that all these bodies can sort of work together for the greater good of game can only be a good thing.”
None of that will be solved any time soon, but count McIlroy as willing to be part of the discussion. For now, his focus is on continuing his streak of finishing no worse than T-5 in his last six starts.
“I think the first couple of days here will be the real test, and I’ll learn a lot about myself and my game over those first couple days,” he said.
[jwplayer LaR0espT-vgFm21H3]
[lawrence-related id=778048184,778048208,778048192]