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19th Hole

Rory McIlroy is “sick” of easy European Tour course setups. Does he have a point?

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A disgruntled Rory McIlroy departed the Alfred Dunhill Links on Sunday, but not before taking a dig at the European Tour, describing their course setups as being “too easy”.

An intriguing take from the second-best player in the world who had just finished T26 at the Scottish event.

Indeed, it isn’t the only performance in recent times either where McIlroy has been outdone by his peers on the European Tour—having failed to record a win in Europe since 2016.

Following his worst finish at a tournament since The Open, the Ulsterman loosened his tongue, and railed against the course setups on the European Tour, stating

“I’m honestly sick of coming back over to the European Tour and shooting 15-under par and finishing 30th. I don’t think the courses are set up hard enough. There’s no penalties for bad shots. It’s tough when you come back when it’s like that. I don’t feel like good golf is regarded as well as it could be.”

Strong rhetoric from the 30-year-old Holywood native who clearly feels the European Tour is failing to match the PGA Tour in their ability to create challenging course setups.

Less than 24 hours after making the comments, McIlroy took to Instagram to acknowledge he had been wrong to make the remarks 15 minutes after his final round on Sunday. However, the 30-year-old maintained that he would like to see tougher setups on the European Tour.

“I would personally like to see tougher set ups in Europe because it will produce better, more complete young players in the future and that can only be a good thing for our game and our Ryder Cup chances going forward.”

As McIlroy explained in the post, last week’s event was a Pro-Am played across links courses in benign conditions which will always lead to low scores – similar to what you’d see at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour.

Taking the Ulsterman’s criticism at face value, then the reason behind his disappointing T26 finish last week boiled down to one thing—not playing well enough. If these courses are as simple as McIlroy is making them out to be, then his failure to produce his best on them shows that he simply needs to play better.

After all, are the “easy” course setups on the European Tour much different to the target golf we see week in week out on the PGA Tour? After crunching some numbers, the answer appears to be no.

Ignoring WGC’s and Major championships, through 24 regular strokeplay events in 2019 on the European Tour, the average winning score has been -16.125. On the PGA Tour, through 33 standard strokeplay events, the average winning score has been -16.9. Furthermore, three European Tour events have been won by scores in the single digits under par in 2019, as opposed to the PGA Tour, where just two tournaments have produced winners in the single numbers.

The talent pool on the PGA Tour is undoubtedly greater than that of the European Tour. But it’s also worth noting that big names from across the pond such as Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele have also tried their hand on these “easy” European Tour courses in recent times, and neither player was able to land any severe blows.

The 30-year-old’s timing of his criticism, as he has since acknowledged, was poor and came one week after PGA Tour stalwart Billy Horschel said of Wentworth that

“You can’t fake it around here. If you hit shots off-line, you’re going to get penalised for it. It’s a beautiful test of golf and I absolutely have loved my entire week here. Everything that encompasses this event can rival the best of the best on the PGA Tour in my opinion.”

With the likes of Le Golf National waiting around the corner, perhaps McIlroy just needs to be more prudent in choosing which events he competes in during his trips back home to Europe.

Do you think McIlroy is justified in his criticism of European Tour course setups being too easy, WRXers?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at [email protected].

19th Hole

3-time PGA Tour winner calls for LIV to buy Champions Tour to fix ‘joke’ purses

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While speaking on the Subpar podcast, former PGA Tour winner and current PGA Tour Champions player Chris DiMarco said he hopes LIV buys the Champions Tour.

“We’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour,” he said.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25 million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

In 2024, the Champions Tour had a total of $67 million in prize money over the course of 24 events.

DiMarco also defended LIV players for taking the money and said he would take it also.

“They wanted to play for a lot of money, and they deserve it. They have had some great careers, why not go and get some money?”

DiMarco also offered insight on Graeme McDowell’s move to LIV.

“I saw Graeme McDowell at the Old Memorial Pro Member, and he goes, ‘Listen, I went up to Jay Monahan and said I love the tour but I am struggling to keep my card and these guys are offering me all this money and less golf. I’m sorry, I’m going.’ And I do not blame him one bit, and I said I would have too.”

DiMarco was ranked as high as 6th in the world in 2006.

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19th Hole

‘It won’t win you golf tournaments’ – Golf analyst rips Charley Hull’s course management

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Charley Hull came just short of her third LPGA Tour victory over the weekend at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship when she played her last two holes at 3 over to slip all the way to 10th on the leaderboard.

After the round, Hull was blasted by Sky Sports commentator and former LPGA Tour player Trish Johnson for her lack of golf course management.

While speaking on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, Johnson spoke harshly of Hull.

“I’m probably her harshest critic, because I know how good she is. She doesn’t win anywhere near enough for her talent, and she doesn’t get involved enough, in all honestly.

“The thing with Charley is that you’re never going to change her. I read something the other day that said how much she loves the game and it’s her love of the game [that costs her]. She’s never going to change and she’s just going to go for every pin.

“In theory that’s great, but it won’t win you golf tournaments, it just won’t because she’s not that much better than anybody else. If you put Charley against Nelly Korda, then I’m picking Nelly every single day of the week.”

Johnson also made a fascinating comparison between Hull and a famous male golfer, John Daly.

“Golf-wise that’s the way she plays the game and it’s a little bit like watching John Daly I suppose.”

“There’s something that John Daly had that made him a major winner and a winner, but Charley is kind of lacking that. Her talent is not in question, but maybe her application is. Maybe it’s just the case of her never changing and that will cost her golf tournaments, there’s no two ways about it. You cannot go for every pin because that’s the way you play and it being fun, as other players are better than that and you have to have course management.”

Hull is still only 27, and therefore has plenty of time to work on her flaws to achieve the success her talent should allow.

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19th Hole

Former agent lifts lid on being fired by ‘zombie’ Tiger Woods

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Discussing his new book “Rainmaker” with the Daily Mail, Tiger Woods’ former agent, Hughes Norton, recounted the events leading up to and after his split with the 15-time major champion.

Norton was abruptly fired by Woods in 1998 after his 1997 Masters win and monster deal with Nike.

In the book, Norton talks about the way Tiger views his relationships, calling him a “zombie.”

The solace I can take, which doesn’t provide much, is this: He was an equal opportunity zombie with relationships, his swing coaches, his lawyer, the guy negotiated the IMG representation deal, with caddies, When it’s over, it’s over.”

Norton added:

“It is the way he terminates relationships with everyone. Whether it’s girlfriends, whether it’s his former golf coaches. It’s ironic, really. In a way he’s so good at confrontation on the golf course. If he’s playing you, he will beat your brains out every single time.

“But when it comes to confronting things like me and other people that are in his life, he has no social skills whatsoever. It’s maddening, actually.”

After he was fired by Woods, Norton was let go by IMG, which he believes was due to Woods’ influence.

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