Latest news with #AugustaNational
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Scott Van Pelt Questions Rory McIlroy's Behavior Amid Media Feud
Scott Van Pelt Questions Rory McIlroy's Behavior Amid Media Feud originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Earlier this year, PGA Tour star Rory McIlroy accomplished the biggest feat of his professional golfing career, winning the Masters Tournament in a playoff against Justin Rose, and completing the Career Grand Slam after many years of trying. Advertisement It was enough to crumple him to his knees on the 18th green at Augusta National Golf Club, with emotions taking over his body. After the feat, many speculated that McIlroy would be so freed up from the victory that this could be the "Summer of Rory," and that the multi-time major champion would go on a run over the next several months and dominate the game. However, quite the opposite has happened. McIlroy has been in some poor form over the past couple of months, both on and off the course. His golf game has not been sharp, with three straight tournaments finishing over par finishes of 47th, 19th, and a missed cut. On top of that, his interactions with golf media have turned a lot of heads, with a number of skipped post-round availabilities, and some testy responses to questions when he does decide to talk. Rory McIlroy plays his shot from the 12th tee during the first round.© Bill Streicher-Imagn Images This has all led to ESPN's Scott Van Pelt publicly questioning what in the world is going on with McIlroy, and why it seems like he's mad at everyone and everything. Advertisement 'I'm just baffled by what happened, like what's going on?' Van Pelt said on his SVP Pod with Stanford Steve. 'People are going to speculate about his life. I will not do that. The man's life is his own business. He mentioned after yesterday, like, 'I climbed my Everest, and I'm trying to come down the mountain.' And I get that. I, in my life, haven't ever, nor will I ever have a monumental accomplishment such as that — finishing off the career Grand Slam. I don't know what comes afterward. You wonder, is it like, 'I don't have anything to chase. I don't have a hill to climb.' But that doesn't, to me, explain just the fact that his resting posture seems pissed off at everyone. And I'm just baffled by it." This past week at the U.S. Open, McIlroy went as far as to admit that he was indifferent about making the cut on Friday, feeling unsure if he wanted to play two more rounds over the weekend. Over the past couple of years, McIlroy has grown to be one of the biggest names in the sport, and one of the best ambassadors as well. That has taken a turn over the past few months, though, and it's noticeable. "To me, he is such a leader of a tour, has been incredibly accountable, more than anybody," Van Pelt said. "And maybe he just reached the point where he's like, 'You know what? I'm (expletive) done. I've done this forever, and now I feel like I've reached a point where I get to do whatever I want.' Saying the quiet part out loud like that makes people go, 'Oh, really? Well, that's an interesting way to frame it.' He just seems like he's mad at everything and everybody. And that's the part I don't quite get.' Advertisement Ultimately, McIlroy gets to be mad at everyone and everything if he chooses to. The PGA Tour does not require post-round media availability for the players, so if he doesn't want to talk, then nobody is going to make him. It is an interesting study of what happens to a player after he achieves his biggest goal, though, and the fallout of being in the public eye while trying to determine what mountain to try and climb next. Related: Calls Mount for Wyndham Clark's Suspension After Alleged U.S. Open Incident This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 17, 2025, where it first appeared.
The 42
4 days ago
- Sport
- The 42
McIlroy clearly isn't ready for his next Everest - but can he keep going without one forever?
SO IT TURNS out Sisyphus might have quite liked the rock all along? The rock, after all, gave him an identity and a purpose. Without it, he's just a guy walking up a hill. Where's the story in that? After Rory McIlroy finally rolled his pock-marked rock over the hill at Augusta National, the consensus was that he was now freed of all pressure and burden and would now go on a tear through the majors. This wasn't just the verdict of over-excited sportswriters like your correspondent here: McIlroy himself said he was playing with house money for the rest of his career. When McIlroy began his press conference on Masters Sunday by asking, 'What are we going to talk about next year?', he should have known that the answer would quickly be, 'Er, it'll still be you, Rory.' McIlroy cannot help but take the path of most interest, and so his post-Masters story has been more captivating than anyone might have expected. His form on the course has certainly slumped. A brilliant 67 at Oakmont yesterday sealed a tied-19th finish that looks a lot better than it felt, while he missed the cut at the Canadian Open with one of the worst rounds of his career and was a non-factor on favoured terrain at the PGA Championship. The vibes, meanwhile, have jackknifed. McIlroy has not always looked as agitated and dispirited on the course as he did at times at Oakmont – the course was so difficult that he was far from alone in tossing clubs – and he has remained as polite and decent with course volunteers and staff members as ever. McIlroy has, however, cut a jaded kind of melancholy with the media, declining all four post-round interview requests during the PGA Championship and maintaining his silence after his first two rounds at the US Open. This is not to say it's been a total blackout – McIlroy has given pre-tournament press conferences at each of his last three events and spoke after his two rounds in Canada – but that the game's biggest star won't speak after the biggest events is a needless failing of already put-upon fans. This has also provoked a disproportionate level of kickback among some in the American golf media, with some hitherto near-sycophantic journalists and podcasters caustic in their criticism of McIlroy's gradual public withdrawal. Given McIlroy occasionally fills his travel time with these podcasts, it would be unsurprising if he was stung by the reaction. All of this feels like part of a bigger split between McIlroy and America itself, as he plans a move to London while trimming his PGA Tour schedule and committing to play in India and Australia later this year. McIlroy, however, would have been better advised skipping media after his round on Saturday rather than deliver the dyspeptic, humourless four-odd minutes he did. He gave Stephen Watson of BBC Northern Ireland a two-word answer to his softball opening question, and went on to voice vague frustrations at the media in general, undermine his admirable grind in making Friday's cut by saying he didn't particularly want to play the weekend at all, and then rounded it all out by saying he felt he had earned the right to do whatever he wanted. Advertisement The media should not be the chiefly offended by these abject minutes, Rory McIlroy should. He has rarely delivered public comments less representative of himself. McIlroy was happily more like his old self on Sunday, giving a cheery pre-round interview to NBC before shooting the joint-lowest score of the day and giving a much wordier, thoughtful post-round interview. 'Look, I climbed my Everest in April, and I think after you do something like that, you've got to make your way back down, and you've got to look for another mountain to climb', said McIlroy, admitting his mental focus and motivation has been absent since the Masters. This was the first US Open in which he finished outside the top 10 since a missed cut in 2018, after which he sat down with himself and resolved to build his game and frame his mind around the year's biggest tests. This built the consistency that ultimately set himself back down the path to Masters glory. Having prepared himself to win, the second major part of the breakthrough was his decision to be willing to lose. The 2022 Open, the 2023 and 2024 US Opens and the 'nearly man' run in autumn last year provided enough heartbreak for anyone's career, but also showed that McIlroy had, in how own words, learned to be 'vulnerable.' After all, anybody who wins big must first be ready to lose big. A crucial part of this vulnerability was his openness with the media: asked to explain away the latest gut-wrench and near-miss or preview the next weighty major title, McIlroy was hopeless at batting away a question and muttering some bromide about 'the process.' Instead he engaged with an open heart and an open mind. Hence why it feels we all got the payoff at the Masters in April. But all of that is, frankly, exhausting, so who can blame him if he just wanted to rock up to a few majors and treat them just as golf tournaments for a while, rather than grand exhibits of his ambition, status and legacy? He has been doing his best to avoid stumbling onto another grand quest since the Masters, and his media withdrawal is potentially part of all of this, given we keep asking him about precisely that which he is trying to avoid. We asked him, for instance, ahead of the PGA Championship whether he has found another career North Star after completing the career Grand Slam, to which he replied he hadn't and nor was he seeking one. 'I think everyone saw how hard having a north star is and being able to get over the line', he said, adding he had 'burdened' himself with the Grand Slam chase. He's had to answer several of these media contrivances. But therein lies the rub. Can McIlroy continue to compete at the very elite end of a maddening and volatile sport without another north star? Is the necessary price of more ambition the weight of another burden? And does he have the appetite to carry another? Searching for that focus, McIlroy has trained his sights on the Open championship in Portrush next month. 'If I can't get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home, then I don't know what can motivate me', asked McIlroy after yesterday's final round. That does not read as a rhetorical question, but an open one, and another question he must decide whether he wants to answer.
USA Today
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Lynch: Rory McIlroy had three goals in 2025. He's achieved the first, now on to the second
Lynch: Rory McIlroy had three goals in 2025. He's achieved the first, now on to the second OAKMONT, Pa. — Twenty-odd years ago, I sat with Ian Woosnam on a golf cart at Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Woosie is the practically-minded son of a Welsh farmer and not given to deep reflection, but on one question he was. He told me he could pinpoint exactly — to the day — when his career decline began. It was April 14, 1991, the day he won the Masters. Woosnam had two goals in his golfing life, other than making a living (his autobiography, Woosie, ends every chapter with a summary of his earnings per season). One dream was to win a major championship. The other was to be the best in the world. On April 8, six days before winning at Augusta National, he reached No. 1 in the official world golf ranking. Two dreams checked off in one week. 'Other people go looking for another mountain to climb,' he told me that day at Kiawah Island. 'I just slid down the other side.' There were 11 more wins on the European Tour, but only one real shot at another major, a decade later in the Open at Royal Lytham, when two drivers in the bag doomed him to a penalty and a tie for 3rd. But the fire that took a diminutive blue-collar guy from hitting balls during winter in his dad's barn to the pinnacle of a white collar sport was extinguished. I thought back to that conversation these past two weeks, listening to Rory McIlroy. Thirty-four years after Woosnam, McIlroy achieved his lifetime dream and completed the career grand slam. The emotion that drained from him on the 18th green and on the walk to the clubhouse — so poignant as to keep the CBS announce team respectfully silent — spoke volumes about what it meant. Shortly afterward, an elated McIlroy opened his press conference with a question that poked fun at the previous decade of inquiries about whether he would win a green jacket: 'What are we all going to talk about next year?' The answer, it turns out, was this: What else ya got? And when ya got it? McIlroy never took time to fully process that seismic accomplishment. Ten days later, he was at the Zurich Classic playing with Shane Lowry, having made a trip to London and Northern Ireland in between. Then it was on to the Truist Championship and straight into another major at the PGA Championship. By comparison, when Tiger Woods won the Masters in '97, and also in '19, he did not make a competitive appearance for five weeks. McIlroy has been asked what comes next several times since the Masters,. Even earlier this week at Oakmont, he was asked what his plan is for the coming years. 'I don't have one. I have no idea,' he said. 'I'm sort of just taking it tournament by tournament at this point. Yeah, I have no idea.' It was disarmingly honest, but alarming for those who fetishize the mentality epitomized by Tiger Woods, a single-mindedness that moves shark-like between feasts without enjoyment or even digestion. It's a sentiment that celebrates racking up accomplishments, but not of taking actual pleasure in those victories. Earlier this year, McIlroy said one of his goals for '25 was to have more fun. It's why he went to a soccer game in Bilbao with friends, why he wants to play in India and Australia later this year. Yet somewhere along the way, he denied himself the time to have fun celebrating the greatest achievement of his career. Now, a minor hangover of sorts has kicked in. "You dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don't think about what comes next,' he said a few days ago. 'I think I've always been a player that struggles to play after a big event, after I win whatever tournament. I always struggle to show up with motivation the next week because you've just accomplished something and you want to enjoy it and you want to sort of relish the fact that you've achieved a goal. Chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I'm allowed a little bit of time to relax a little bit.' The schedule doesn't allow much time for relaxation or reflection, even if he had been minded to pursue it. Two majors have passed with not much of an impact, a tie for 47th at Quail Hollow and lingering around the top 25 at Oakmont as the final round wound down. In a casual conversation a few months back, he summarized his objectives for the year: win the Masters, win the Open at Royal Portrush, win an away Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. As he prepared to leave Pittsburgh, McIlroy acknowledged fresh motivation is on the horizon for the second item on that list. 'If I can't get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home, then I don't know what can motivate me,' he said. 'I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind. I probably haven't been there the last few weeks. But as I said, getting home and having a couple weeks off before that, hopefully feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, will get me in the right place again.' Just 63 days have passed since that victorious evening at Augusta National. Only 32 remain until balls are in the air at the 153rd Open. Maybe that hasn't been enough time to celebrate realizing a dream 30 years in the making, but it's probably enough to narrow the focus to knocking off the second item on his target list for '25.
Sunday World
5 days ago
- Sport
- Sunday World
‘Frustration with you guys' – Rory McIlroy in tetchy exchange with reporters after US Open hopes dashed
Co Down native insists it's not just the media he is disillusioned with The Co Down man has spoken at length about his struggles to motivate himself after achieving his life's goal by winning the Masters and completing the career Grand Slam. He even admitted that he wondered during Friday's battling 72 if he really wanted to be around for the weekend for two more days of pain at the punishing Pittsburgh track and sounded like a man struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of his achievement at Augusta National more than any perceived media slight. 'Pretty average,' McIlroy said when asked to sum up rounds of 74, 72 and 74 that left him tied for 53rd in the clubhouse on 10-over. Rory McIlroy after sinking a putt on the eighth hole during the third round of the US Open at Oakmont Country Club Paul Kimmage at the US Open: Rory finally speaks Patience is paramount at Oakmont but without his A-game the Holywood star confessed that it was a struggle from the get-go and his patience also appears to have run out with elements of the media following the reporting of his non-conforming driver at the PGA Championship last month. Asked if his refusal to speak after all four rounds at Quail Hollow and the first two rounds at Oakmont were due to frustration with his play, he said: 'No, not really. It's more a frustration with you guys. 'I'm just, yeah, I don't know. I've been totally available for the last few years, and I'm not saying — maybe not you guys, but maybe more just the whole thing.' Rory McIlroy cut a frustrated figure yet again at Oakmont yesterday. Photo: Charles LeClaire He admitted the driver issue was a factor but media burnout sounded a more plausible explanation. 'I mean, that was a part of it,' he said of the driver issue, where he was the only player named following his failed driver test at Quail Hollow and later admitted he was 'a little pissed off' as Scottie Scheffler's driver had also been ruled non-conforming. 'Yeah, that was a part of it. But it's not as if — like at Augusta I skipped you guys on Thursday, so yeah, again, it's not if as if — it's not out of the ordinary. I've done it before; I'm just doing it a little more often.' Surrounded by reporters and TV crews in stifling heat, McIlroy said he felt like he'd earned the right to dodge the media when he felt like it. 'I feel like I've earned the right to do whatever I want to do, yeah,' he said, adding that while he'd said he'd skip when he felt like it unless the tour made it obligatory, he wasn't deliberately daring them to do so. 'No, I'm not daring them to do anything,' he said. 'I hope they don't change it because [skipping]… it's a nice luxury to have. But I'm just pointing out the fact that we have the ability to do it.' The come down after winning the Masters is clearly a factor in McIlroy's current mental state. 'Yeah, I alluded to it in my pre-tournament press conference,' he said. 'You don't really know how it's going to affect you. You don't know how you're going to react to such a — I wouldn't say a life-altering occasion—but at least something that I've dreamt about for a long time. Yeah, I alluded to the fact that I have felt a little flat on the golf course afterwards.' That manifested itself in his play on a course that tries a player's patience like no other. 'The name of the game this week is staying patient and try to do a good job of it out there, but it's one of those golf courses that you can lose patience on pretty quickly,' he said. While he felt he drove the ball better than he had in some time, he found Oakmont a difficult mental test in terms of the penalty paid for mistakes. 'I was hoping to play better but I didn't,' he said, adding that his best play emerged late on Friday when he was fighting to make the cut. 'Yeah, it's funny, like it's much easier being on the cut line when you don't really care if you're here for the weekend or not,' he joked. x 'I was sort of thinking, do I really want two more days here or not. So it makes it easier to play better when you're in that mindset. 'I actually feel like I've played okay this week. It's a sort of golf course where the tiniest mistakes get penalised a lot and that's sort of how it's felt this week. 'It's very difficult. You've got to be on every single shot. You know if you miss a fairway you're going to be scrambling for par. You know if you miss your landing spot even coming from the fairways by a couple yards, these greens repel the ball into rough and you're up against collars and it just makes things very, very tricky. So, yeah, you got to be totally on your game.' He had a chance on a rain-softened course to make a third-round move but bogeyed the third and dropped another shot at the ninth after driving into a drain and taking a penalty drop. While he birdied the 10th, he bogeyed the 11th, 14th and 16th after missing greens and followed a sand-save birdie at the 17th with a bogey at the last after finding more rough from the tee. As for his hopes for today, he did little to dispel the air of doom and gloom. 'Hopefully a round in under four-and-a-half hours and get out of here,' he said, before walking away. Meanwhile, Robert MacIntyre has "100 per cent" belief he can win the US Open after an impressive third round at Oakmont. MacIntyre described his opening round level-par 70 as one of the best of his life, but he bettered it just 48 hours later. The Scot, from Oban, put in a controlled performance to card a 69, to sit on three over, six shots behind leaders Sam Burns and JJ Spaun when they were midway through their third round. It might have been even better for MacIntyre as he had got down to one over after 12 holes but a spate of bogeys in the final six holes saw him drift back out. But he still believes he is in contention win a first major. Asked if he can win, he replied: 'One hundred per cent. I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe that, it's a simple answer, yes.' It is as you were for world number one Scottie Scheffler, who carded an even-par 70. Scheffler maintained he was still in contention after Friday's second round but failed to make any ground on the leaders, his three birdies cancelled out by three bogeys.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Rory McIlroy's indifference is understandable after achieving his dream
A snapshot of Rory McIlroy's new normal arrived the day before the US PGA Championship began. McIlroy's practice round at Quail Hollow was watched by more than 50, inside the ropes. Journalists, content creators, wannabe content creators … everyone wanted not just a glimpse – you can get that from the bleachers – but a piece of golf's latest grand slam man. McIlroy played a hole while being interviewed for the tournament's main preview show. All soft, knock-around stuff but inevitably a distraction. It was difficult to shake the notion that Tiger Woods would never have tolerated such a scenario. It is also thankfully a truism that McIlroy is not Tiger Woods. The Northern Irishman's chatty, warm personality endears him to so many. In a non-tribal sport people root for Rory, none more so than at Augusta National when more that a decade of frustration ended amid euphoric April scenes. Hardened men shed tears in a media centre, no less. In Pittsburgh, you needn't go far to encounter complaint at the long-term decline of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Even an iconic ballpark cannot pull in the masses any more. A few miles away at Oakmont, golf's chattering classes have a gripe of their own; Rory McIlroy and a refusal to engage as before with the media. It is a preposterous discussion on one level, as if four minutes of quotes after a 75 somehow impacts McIlroy's legacy as much as Masters glory. Yet it is also an intriguing one, if only when assessing why the 36-year-old turned mute. The simple answer is McIlroy is irritated, not unreasonably, after giving the very people now sniping probably the greatest story they will ever report upon. None of them were in New Orleans for McIlroy's first post-Masters appearance, where the five-time major winner was perfectly expansive. Within two days of McIlroy being pursued by all and sundry at Quail Hollow, news emerged that his driver had failed a routine conformance test. This was a clumsy situation, largely on account of a needlessly secretive process but it was McIlroy's name alone that surfaced. It did via a partner broadcaster, which will have turned heads in Camp McIlroy. Conspiracy theorists ignored the fact he was 175th on the PGA Tour's driver accuracy table heading into the US PGA. There is a reason a seven-iron sits in McIlroy's display cabinet in Augusta's champions locker room. Headlines subsequently surrounded McIlroy's failure to play the Memorial tournament in Ohio. The event had never appeared on McIlroy's schedule in the first place. Far more significant than McIlroy not advertising his plans is that he deems big events on the PGA Tour worthy of skipping. McIlroy has spoken about scaling down his playing commitments in the US; he will instead appear in India and Australia in 2025. The US-obsessed PGA Tour should be concerned by its biggest draw's dream of a properly global sport. Sportspeople often speak of regret having not enjoyed their highest highs. With Green Jacket in tow, McIlroy headed to England and Northern Ireland. He did the chatshow circuit in New York. Presumably he found the Europa League final as tedious as the rest of us but he made sure he had a front-row seat in Bilbao. The resetting of goals, the hitting of more greens, can wait. Few people know what on earth it is like to wake up one morning knowing the only thing that has got you out of bed for the last 10 years is now on your CV. A McIlroy psychological adjustment from this position is as necessary as it may be difficult. McIlroy is cheesed off that he is not playing well – a matter only exaggerated at Oakmont's brutal setup – when there is an abundance of rationale behind that. He is out of competitive sync. 'It's really hard to describe to somebody that hasn't really lived through it,' explained Scottie Scheffler. 'When I woke up after [winning] the PGA Championship this year, I literally felt like I got hit by a bus. I felt terrible. Mentally it is exhausting, physically it is a grind. I can only imagine how Rory felt after winning the career grand slam.' After his third round at this US Open, he stood before the media when giving the impression he would rather be undergoing root canal treatment. He had skipped post-round duties for the previous six rounds in a row, only one of which was sub-70. Until the tournament obligates players to talk when requested – which is precisely what they should do – McIlroy can demonstrate his general annoyance in this way. Golf's clickbait modern media world means McIlroy has no scope to speak on an off-the-record basis. 'I feel like I've earned the right to do whatever I want to do,' McIlroy said. His wording here was unusually clumsy, making him look entitled; which he is not. Even when trying to pay lip service, McIlroy cannot stop turning heads. His admission that he didn't care whether he made the Oakmont cut was as brutally honest as it was striking. McIlroy has been irritated by elements of the media before. Last summer, he changed his phone number after untimely and intrusive messages asking for his thoughts on losing by a shot to Bryson DeChambeau at the US Open. McIlroy has never really explained his famous 'if you want to be in the circus, you have to put up with the clowns' comment of more than a decade ago but it appeared a pointed reference to press speculation. Despite these and other minor rumbles, McIlroy has been great for reporters; a constant source of news and unfailingly helpful towards those with whom he has built up proper relationships. The sporting public will remember McIlroy's wondrous shot into the 15th at Augusta on Masters Sunday. They will recall a young man beating the turf on the 18th green while in floods of joyous tears. The media has played a part in McIlroy's profile and undoubtedly will do again. It is just that turning indifference from the golfer towards some of that group as a huge deal or grave error at this particular point in time feels needlessly self-aggrandising.
