Money talks – Rory McIlroy flips his stance on PGA Tour–LIV Golf standoff

Rory McIlroy, who became the first invertebrate[1] winner of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am a couple of weeks ago, has totally flipped, in more ways than one, from PGA Tour crusader to LIV-accepting, bootlicking Donald Trump sycophant. According to a pair of articles penned by unabashed Rory fanboy Josh Schrock at Golf.com (‘Get over it’: Rory McIlroy says PGA Tour-LIV unification works only in 1 way; ‘On the Tour’s side:’ Rory McIlroy thinks Donald Trump can help PGA Tour-PIF negotiations), McIlroy has shed his guise as stalwart defender of the PGA Tour, not only adopting a “can’t we all just get along” attitude with respect to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league, but sucking up to the convicted felon who lied and hoodwinked his way into the White House for a second term (to our nation’s shame), saying that the convicted felon, failed businessman, and oligarch suck-up can help with negotiations between the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf league.

With the exception of the reigning U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau (and just typing that made me throw up in my mouth a little) few, if any, of the defectors were or are still players in the top tier of the game—and I say good riddance to them all.

The greedy pros who ditched the PGA Tour to join LIV signed on with an outfit whose goal was to destroy the tour that had, in many cases, made them multi-millionaires, joining a league that is funded by a blood-soaked, misogynistic, religio-authoritarian monarchy with one foot in the Middle Ages who see it as a way to put a good face on their heinous government by participating in international sports[2].

Rory and other LIV apologists on the PGA Tour are caving in because the Tour leadership panicked at the loss of a few big names to LIV and instituted changes that will open the way to making players who stuck with the PGA Tour even richer. (Rory himself has benefitted from these changes: as the winner of the Signature event at Pebble Beach two weeks ago, McIlroy banked a $3.6 million paycheck thanks to the now-$20 million total purse for those select events.)

And now McIlroy is sucking up to the heinous grifter and convicted felon who lied his way into the White House, again, in hopes of cementing an agreement that will put the PGA Tour in bed with not one but two criminal regimes—the Saudis and the current U.S. administration—all in the interests of padding his own already-over-stuffed bank account[3].

Some in the golf media see this attitude shift as personal “growth” on Rory’s part, viz the following quote:

“Everyone sees things through their own lens. McIlroy has  changed his opinion on a multitude of things, but that’s a sign of growth and evolution in any person. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with how the stance has changed or that the contradictions can’t be addressed.”

– Josh Schrock, Golf.com

Others, like myself, see it as giving up in the face of the realization that you are going to make a butt-ton of money no matter what happens, so why bother to push back any more?

Any number of the LIV defectors have shown a similar lack of character, notably Spaniard Jon Rahm, who very publicly declared that he was “playing for legacy, not money” and pledged to remain a PGA Tour player, until the Saudis waved a contract under his nose that has been reported[4] to be worth $300 million over several years. In a press conference after his 2022 win in the Open Championship at St Andrews, Aussie Cam Smith waved away questions about a possible move to the Saudi-backed golf league, saying that he just played golf, his “team” worries about that stuff:

Q. Cam, apologies for having to bring this up in these circumstances, but your name continues to be mentioned, has been mentioned to me this week about LIV golf. What's your position? Are you interested? Is there any truth to suggestions that you might be signing?
CAMERON SMITH: I just won the British Open, and you're asking about that. I think that’s pretty not that good.
Q. I appreciate that, but the question is still there. Are you interested at all? Is there any truth in that?
CAMERON SMITH: I don't know, mate. My team around me worries about all that stuff. I'm here to win golf tournaments.

But Cam is the one signing on the dotted line and banking all that Saudi gelt.

Ever since two big sea-change events in the world of men’s professional golf—the immense popularity of Arnold Palmer (which coincided with the advent of television coverage of golf and the influx of that sweet TV money), and the arrival of Tiger Woods on the scene, which brought step-changes in both endorsement deals and tournament purses—the game has been a road to generational wealth for those at the top of the heap. No one is saying that it’s easy—golf is still a difficult game to play well, consistently, and fields are deep, but the money is there. Not everyone achieves multi-million dollar status, of course, but a damned good living can be made by those who make it into the pro ranks, and can stay. As middle-tier pro Kevin Kisner said in an interview back in January, 2021[5], “They give away a lot of money for 20th.”

(My favorite quote on the subject of making money in professional golf comes from the great Dan Jenkins, speaking through his character Kenny Lee Puckett in his 1974 golf novel, Dead Solid Perfect: “Compared to your basic millionaire like Jack Nicklaus, I’m nobody. But I can win myself about $200,000[6] a year if I can just manage to thump the ball around with my dick.”)

The ranks of men’s professional golf have become increasingly stratified in recent years—especially in the last couple of years, as the PGA Tour’s response to the emergence of LIV Golf has been to create the Signature Events mentioned above, limited-field no-cut events with purses bumped to $20 million from the measly $9 million paid out at run-of-the-mill Tour events. Rory McIlroy and some other inhabitants of the upper tiers of the game are pushing for more separation between the Haves and the (relatively speaking) Have-Nots in the game, greedily seeking entry into the One-Percenters Club on the back of their ability to knock a little white ball into a small hole in the ground starting from hundreds of yards away, doing so in fewer strokes than can those of us who play the game for recreation.

My final word on this subject again comes from the typewriter of Dan Jenkins, speaking as Kenny Lee Puckett:

“Now if you ask me why so many people want to put up so much money for us to compete for, I can’t give you a sensible answer. There’s no law that says there has to be a golf tour. 

If all the sponsors got together and decided they were weary of seeing us every year, it would be all over. Most of us would have to sit down on the curb and learn to play the harmonica, or something.”

[1] (That is to say, spineless.)

[2] (Also known as “sportswashing”.)

[3] (Rory’s current net worth is estimated at around US $170M.)

[4] (Jon Rahm LIV Golf contract, explained: How much money does he make from LIV deal in 2024?)

[5] Kevin Kisner had a hilarious response when asked if he can win anywhere on tour, https://www.golfwrx.com/644924/kevin-kisner-had-a-hilarious-response-when-asked-if-he-can-win-anywhere-on-tour/ Jan. 14, 2021.

[6] (Quote is from the 1999 edition of the book; that number is chump change these days.)

Thursday at the 2024 AT&T Pro-Am: Detry in the lead, McNealy makes a big recovery

What a difference a day makes. Wednesday at Pebble Beach, the final practice day before competition rounds began, was a day of high winds and little rain – until the evening, when another “Pineapple Express” atmospheric river pounded the Central Coast with over an inch of rain. Thursday morning dawned with a mix of towering cloudscapes, rain showers, and patches of blue sky – a day when a jacket, an umbrella, and sunglasses would all come into play.

It was in this mixed bag of weather conditions that the first day of competition began in the “new look” Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Even with just 80 pairings and two courses in play, the traditional two-tee (#1 and #10) start was still in play; tee times ran from 8:45 to 10:33 at comfortable 12-minute intervals – still a desirable procedure when amateurs are in the mix. With the weather outlook for the weekend looking less than rosy – and positively nasty on Sunday, conversation around the lunch table in the media center touched on the possibility of play delays, one 36-hole day, a shortened event, or even the dreaded Monday finish. For today’s opening round, however, players and spectators alike enjoyed the light breezes and crashing surf, with – for most of the day – just the occasional brief rain shower bringing out jackets and umbrellas.

Big names in the mix

Ulster’s Rory McIlroy, back at Pebble Beach for the first time since the 2019 U.S. Open, rose to the top of the leaderboard briefly as he hit 6-under through 14 holes at Spyglass – before a bogey, double-bogey, bogey finish dropped him well down the leaderboard (the double-bogey on #8 involved a penalty for an improper drop.) Patrick Cantlay, meanwhile, playing three groups behind him, took over the top spot at 6-under after a birdie on #13, a string of four birdies at holes #17 through #2, and another at hole #5.

Cantlay went on to birdie his 16th and 17th holes to take over the top spot at 8-under. A late charge by Korea’s Si Woo Kim came up short, as a bogey at #9 dropped him to 6-under – but wait, there’s more…

Another “who is that guy” early leader at the AT&T Pro-Am

Late in the day, Thomas Detry of Belgium, also playing at Spyglass Hill, was 6-under through 16 holes and challenging for the outright lead. A birdie at #17 put him level with Cantlay – and then he took sole possession of the top of the leaderboard with a dramatic chip-in birdie from the right rough at Spy’s par-four 18th. With the new format dictating only one round at Spyglass Hill for all players, can Detry, an eighth-year pro still looking for his first win on Tour, follow up with three good rounds at Pebble Beach?

Maverick McNealy’s up-and-down round

Former Stanford Men’s Golf great Maverick McNealy coasted through most of the front nine on pars, with a lone birdie at #6, the par-five hole that plays up a five-story cliff on Arrowhead Point, but came to grief at holes 9 and 10. These two daunting par-four’s form part of the three-hole stretch (holes 8, 9, and 10) that sportswriter Dan Jenkins dubbed “Abalone Corner”, echoing the “Amen Corner” moniker given to Augusta National’s 11th through 13th.

After a par on #8, McNealy bogeyed #9 after going down the left side of the hole bunker-rough-green; he then flipped the script on #10, sailing his approach shot wide right, over the cliff but hanging up in the rough, luckily not falling all the way to the beach below. His recovery shot sailed over the green to the left rough, thence to the green and two putts for a double-bogey six and a mid-round score of 2-over.

After his adventure at #10, another string of routine pars got McNealy to Pebble’s picture-postcard closing hole, the par-five 18th, where in 2021 he narrowly missed a shot at forcing a playoff against Daniel Berger. That year, on the 72nd hole of the tournament, he sailed a beautiful high-draw 3-iron shot to 22 feet above the hole, only just missing the eagle putt that would have put the tournament into extra holes (after Berger did make eagle there, a few minutes later.)

In today’s round he followed a 304-yard drive to the right edge of the fairway, threading the needle between the cypress tree and the bunker complex there, with an absolutely stiffed second shot, a hybrid from 236 yards, to a scant eight feet above the hole. This time he made the eagle putt, making up the two-shot deficit from #10 to finish even for the round. A little more in the way of play of that caliber and we may see another high finish here at Pebble Beach from the young man who literally grew up on this golf course though his early teens.

The other NorCal-associated golfers in the field finished the day as follows:

• Collin Morikawa, former Cal golfer and 2020 PGA Championship winner at Harding Park – 5-under, T5
• Kurt Kitayama, Chico native and UNV grad – 3-under, T15
• Max Homa, 2013 Cal grad – 3-under, T15
• Former SJSU Men’s Golf standout Mark Hubbard – 3-under, T15
• Patrick Rodgers, Stanford Men’s Golf star who tied Tiger Woods’s 11-victory record – 4-over, T77

Book review: “The Prodigy”, by John Feinstein ⭐⭐⭐-1/2

I have been aware of John Feinstein’s writing, especially his golf writing, for many years; in fact, his 1996 chronicle of a season on the PGA Tour, A Good Walk Spoiled, was my introduction to non-fiction reading about professional golf. Though I have concentrated on his golf writing, Feinstein has written several well-regarded books on basketball, baseball, and football—and I have only recently learned that he has also authored a series of sports-related YA (young adult) novels, including the recent release, The Prodigy, the first of his books for younger readers on the subject of golf.

The Prodigy is the new YA sports novel from John Feinstein—his first that is set in the world of golf.

The Prodigy is the somewhat fanciful tale of a 17-year-old golf phenom named Frank Baker, a nice kid from a small town in Connecticut who has amazing golf skills. The book is set in the recent past—2017 and early 2018, to be exact—and we pick up the story when Frank is preparing to play in the 2017 U.S. Amateur at Riviera Country Club, in the upscale Los Angeles-area city of Pacific Palisades.

Frank is being raised by his father, Tom, a divorced single parent who is a freelance stock trader—and a full-time golf dad. Frank is looking forward to playing college golf, and given his record, which includes making it to the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur the previous year at the age of 16, he is assured of a multitude of offers, from the best programs in the country. His father, on the other hand, has his eyes on a different prize.

Frank’s prowess on the golf course has attracted attention from more than just college coaches; agents and equipment company reps have shown interest, and the book’s story arc is built around the conflict that arises when Frank’s dad gets too cozy with an agent from a big sports-representation firm. Frank is under pressure from his dad and the agent to forgo a college career and turn pro. The pressure gets more intense when the youngster earns a spot in the field at the 2018 Masters, heating up even more when Frank shows that he can keep up with the big boys on one of the biggest stages in the game of golf.

There are two people in Frank’s corner in all of the drama surrounding his college / pro dilemma: his swing coach, Slugger Johnson—the head pro at Frank’s home course; and Slugger’s longtime friend and college golf teammate, Keith Forman, a former low-level pro golfer turned golf writer. Forman’s involvement raises journalistic dilemmas for him as he finds himself becoming part of Frank’s story—even coming into conflict with Frank’s father and the ever-present agent—and not just a dispassionate observer who is reporting the story.

Feinstein creates an air of conflict that the Keith Forman character has to work through, describing a number of rather hostile encounters between Forman and tournament volunteers and security personnel, even citing a USGA training session for marshals in which media-badge holders are singled out as untrustworthy (based on a real experience of Feinstein’s—I guess I had better watch my P’s and Q’s the next time I’m at a USGA event on a media credential!)

The conflict between Frank (with Slugger and Keith in his corner), and his dad and the agent, along with his extraordinary play at one of the most high-profile golf tournaments in the world, are the main factors that combine to bring the action to a dramatic conclusion at the 2018 Masters.

One thing you can be sure of in a John Feinstein book is the insider’s touch. Feinstein knows everybody in the game, from players to agents, equipment reps, media folks, and officials and functionaries from the USGA and the PGA Tour. This knowledge is on full display in The Prodigy, to the extent that it starts to feel like rather gratuitous name-dropping. Players, including big names like Phil Mickelson, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and Justin Thomas, not only have cameos, they play significant roles in the story, interacting with Frank and the other characters.

And it’s not just players, though they are the most recognizable names. Some of the other real-life names that are dropped include golf media personalities from TV, print journalists, and behind-the-scenes folks from the USGA and the technical side of broadcasting. As for the agents and equipment reps, they get the same short shrift that Florida real-estate developers get in a Carl Hiaasen novel—and I wonder how many of them are still going to be speaking to Feinstein after reading this book.

For the golf-knowledgeable teen audience at which this book is aimed, the big-name golfers who are mentioned will be well-known figures, and those readers might get a kick out of reading a story in which these stars of the PGA Tour interact with a teenaged golfer, even if the conversations and situations feel awkward and contrived—which they do.

The inclusion of real people from golf broadcasting, such as Joe Buck, Paul Azinger, Brandel Chamblee, and Holly Sonders, will pique the interest of young readers who watch golf on TV, but the use of the real names of people from the behind-the-scenes operations, and from the print-media world, will go right over the heads of the young reading audience (and many older readers, too…). On the other hand, readers and reviewers who actually know these people (and I know, or at least have met, a few of them) will find it odd to see in print a fictionalized version of a known person. This aspect of the book rings false with me, and seems rather pointless, all things considered.

Other aspects of the story are also rather uneven. While the overall “voice” of the book has a decided YA tenor, it wanders back and forth between over-explaining simple aspects of the game, as if catering to non-golfers, and using shorthand references that only a reader who is well-versed in the game will understand.

There are curious (and admittedly, mostly minor) lapses that will bother the knowledgeable golfer (or maybe just golf writers who are also editors…). For instance, when setting the scene for the section of the book in which Frank is playing in the 2017 U.S. Amateur, at Riviera Country Club, Feinstein describes the club’s location as being “…a few miles east of the Pacific Ocean…”, but Riviera’s westernmost border lies a scant mile or so from the beach. (Yeah, it’s a nit, but it caught my eye because I specifically checked it for a column I did a few years ago about Ben Hogan’s history at Riviera.) 

Another little faux pas that caught my attention was a misquote of the tagline from the USGA’s pace-of-play campaign of a couple of years back (a line borrowed from a scene in Caddyshack), which is cited as “While we’re still young”, rather than the correct line, which is just “While we’re young.” There are a few other instances like that scattered throughout the book—small things, but noticeable to the knowledgeable, and attentive, reader.

One thread that runs through the latter part of the story, and one which I relished, is a series of subtle, and not-so-subtle, digs at Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters—and their fussy rules and regulations, which are capriciously enacted and vigorously enforced, such as their insistence on referring to spectators on the grounds of the club as “patrons”, a ban on cellphones on the grounds (which Frank is gently but firmly admonished for joking about in an interview), and the use of the terms “first nine” and “second nine” instead of “front nine” and “back nine”. The Keith Forman character is characterized as “…(knowing) he was privileged to cover the Masters and (that) he was in a place any golf fan would kill to be, but the atmosphere of the place—the entitlement of it all—made him feel a bit squeamish.” I’m with Keith on that one.

All in all, while The Prodigy is an engaging read, especially for young golf fans, the overall scenario—which I cannot fully describe without introducing spoilers—is a little over-the-top, and the scenes which involve real-life people from the golf world feel forced and unrealistic. These things might not matter to, or be noticed by, the intended teenage audience, but adult readers, especially those with a bit of familiarity with the personalities involved, will squirm a little over some of those passages.

Book review: “The First Major –The Inside Story of the 2016 Ryder Cup”, by John Feinstein ☆☆☆☆ ½☆

A new book from New York Times bestselling author John Feinstein is always a treat. He is a sports journalist non pareil, as erudite and knowledgeable – across a wide spectrum of sports, not just golf – as he is prolific, and his latest “The First Major: The Inside Story of the 2016 Ryder Cup” is his 28th non-fiction sports book.

Feinstein has written about all the major sports that define America’s sporting life, from pro tennis to NFL football. Even if you don’t read sports books, you may know his work from his time at Sports Illustrated, or his current stints at the Washington Post and Golf Digest – or you may hear him on the radio on Sirius XM, or see him on television on the Golf Channel. In fact, if you are an American sports fan, of any stripe, this introductory paragraph is probably a waste of my time, because you already know his work.

The upshot of this recitation of Feinstein’s bona fides is that he is a sports journalist that professional athletes know and trust, and getting the best stories, the inside dope, requires the ability to get athletes to talk to you. John has that ability, and it certainly shows in his latest effort.

The 2016 Ryder Cup, which was played at the self-styled Hazeltine National Golf Club, near Chaska, Minnesota – a suburb of Minneapolis, was a watershed moment in the history of that storied event. It was the year that the United States stopped a European squad that had dominated the event with three wins in a row, from 2010 through 2014 – the third time in recent decades that the U.S. team had stopped a European run of victories at three. The first time was in 1991, after European victories in 1985, 1987, and 1989; then again in 2008, after the Euro squad took top honors in 2002, 2004, and 2006.

The 2016 event was notable for the wild swirl of events in the world of golf that led up to it, not the least of which was the rancorous atmosphere of the previous Ryder Cup, the 2014 event in which the venerable elder statesman Tom Watson was brought back to try and repeat his 1993 success as Ryder Cup skipper.

A clash of styles and a lack of communication – not to mention something of an uprising in the ranks, led by another respected figure in U.S. Ryder cup history, Phil Mickelson, doomed Watson’s leadership in 2014. The U.S. golf establishment – meaning the PGA of America, which runs the event for the red, white, and blue – wanted to wash away the bad taste that was left by the 2014 loss, and to that end they formed a Ryder Cup “task force” – a committee, widely derided by the European players and media – which was supposed to solve the Americans’ Ryder Cup problems.

Feinstein lays out the background, both recent and historical, that underpins the 2016 Ryder Cup, then digs into the personalities and near-term events which defined that contest, including the task force, and the selection of Davis Love III as U.S. captain, for a repeat performance after his stint as U.S. skipper in the agonizing 2012 loss at Medinah, which was controversial.

One headline-grabber was the social media clash between then-PGA President Ted Bishop and Euro Ryder Cup stalwart Ian Poulter, a schoolyard-worthy spat that resulted in Bishop’s unceremonious ouster for a series of childish remarks leveled at Poulter; another, coming much closer to the event, was the heated, and totally spontaneous, on-air spat between Golf Channel analysts Brandel Chamblee and David Duval over the relative importance of leadership and individual play.

During the event, one of the big stories was the play of Patrick Reed, both as a partner with his temperamentally polar opposite Jordan Spieth, and solo, as the man who took down the boisterous, and boastful, Rory McIlroy of the Euro squad in Sunday singles.

Another social-media-based dust-up occurring before and during  play was the attention-seeking U.S.-bashing promulgated by PJ Willett, the schoolteacher older brother of then-reigning Master champion Danny Willett. The elder Willett brother teed off on American fans in an article for a British sports publication, and in a series of posts on Twitter, guaranteeing a raucous reception by the bottom 10% of American fans.

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The strength of Feinstein’s work, and this book is no exception, is the time and effort he puts into interviews, and the wealth of material he obtains by doing so. No sound bites or quickly tossed-off aphorisms are to be found here – everyone involved in the event talked to him, some at length (with one exception – U.S. vice captain Tiger Woods. No surprise there.)

I will admit that I am not a huge fan of the Ryder Cup. It has become, in my opinion, an overblown, over-amped biennial hype-fest, owing its notoriety more to rancor than to great golf – but Feinstein’s writing drew me in. His research is so thorough and his insights so telling and precise that even though he was writing about an event which I have come to dislike over the last few years, I couldn’t put the book down.

Reading closely with a critical eye will turn up errors and shortcomings in almost any book, especially one on a subject in which I have an interest, and a certain store of knowledge (if I say so myself…)

I could have done without quite so much background on the head pro and superintendent of Hazeltine. They deserve to be mentioned, of course, but the pages of background on these two men started to wear thin – and to feel, frankly, like word-count padding.

More seriously, it was a little bit disappointing to see some pretty shocking errors in the text. First and foremost was a rather egregious misquoting of Ben Crenshaw’s iconic, well-known, and oft-quoted conclusion to his Saturday-night press conference at the 1999 Ryder Cup at The Country Club, Brookline, Massachusetts: “I’m gonna leave y’all with one thought, them I’m gonna leave. I’m a big believer in fate. I have a good feeling about this. That’s all I’m gonna tell ya.” – which Feinstein styled as “I’m gonna leave y’all with this: I’m a big believer in fate. I have a feeling about this.”

In a section about Davis Love II, the well-liked father of 2012/2016 Ryder Cup skipper Davis Love III, Feinstein casually mentions that the elder Love had played with Harvey Penick, then dismissed Penick as the cowriter of what is considered one of the game’s holy texts, Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book, a rather glaring mischaracterization of one of American golf’s most revered figures. 

These two errors, along with a host of lesser faux pas that should have been caught by a good copy editor, left a bit of tarnish on the otherwise gleaming aspect of the book, and took a half-star off of my assessment.

Regardless, if you love golf, and good golf writing, this book deserves a spot in your bookshelf. Buy it for yourself, or since the holidays are upon us as of this writing, put it on your Christmas list, golf lovers, and keep your fingers crossed.

You’ve Got To Love Johnny Miller…

…especially if you’re a golf writer looking for a quote. With over two dozen wins on the PGA Tour, two majors to his credit and a 22-year career in the broadcast booth for CBS, Johnny has the credibility to speak his mind – and he certainly does; he is well-known for not pulling punches when doling out his opinions from the broadcast tower or in interviews.

Sportswriter Dan Jenkins mentioned Johnny’s acerbic commentary style in his 2005 novel Slim and None, when his main character, fictitious PGA Tour pro Bobby Joe Grooves, compared Miller to the blunt-spoken announcers at European Tour events:

“Hit a bad shot in America and every announcer but Johnny Miller will throw you a softball. Say something like, ‘That’s not exactly what he had in mind.’ 

But hit a bad shot in Europe and the Brit on the mike will say, ‘Ah, there’s old Aunt Martha, trying to play golf again.’ ”

Johnny was on hand the weekend before Thanksgiving at Pebble Beach as honorary host of the Callaway Pebble Beach Invitational pro-am tournament. Enjoying a pristine late-autumn Central Coast afternoon while he waited by the 18th green to present the trophy to tournament winner Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey, Johnny was asked about the news that the current world #1, Rory McIlroy, was soon to make a wholesale equipment change. The young Northern Irishman is rumored to be signing a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal with Nike, and dropping the Titleist clubs and ball that have been in his bag for four European Tour victories, six PGA Tour wins, and two major championships. Johnny’s answer was typically blunt:

“It could be a major issue. It’s one thing to change clubs, but it’s another thing when you change ball and clubs. I did that with Wilson in ’75, and it literally ruined my career. I never tell anybody that, but since we got on it… they had that truncated-cone dimple ball and crappy woods – the irons were good, but I mean it was a disaster for me. It would have been one thing if I could have kept playing Titleist or something, but they wanted me to switch to their new ball.”

The problem with good players is they think they can win with a rental set, you know, but it really isn’t true. You have so much confidence you feel like ‘Hey, it doesn’t matter, I’ll take the big bucks…’ ”

McIlroy obviously feels differently about it than Miller; on Tuesday in Dubai he was asked by reporters if he had any concerns that the change would jeopardize his game. He replied, 

“No, not at all. I think all the manufacturers make great equipment nowadays and it’s all very similar – a lot of them get their clubs made at the same factories. I don’t think it will make any difference.”

With Nike in the equipment news recently promoting their new “cavity-back” Covert driver, and the second generation of their resin-core-technology ball, this is probably not what Rory’s new handlers in Beaverton would like to hear.

On the other hand, the folks at “The House That Swoosh Built” may not be concerned. With players’ roles these days more as brand ambassadors than pitchmen for a specific line of clubs or model of ball, McIlroy is not likely to be shoehorned into an existing product line; in fact, far from playing clubs manufactured in some überfactory churning out clubs for all comers, Rory’s new sticks are likely to be handmade Nike-skinned replicas of his successful Titleist clubs, and the ball he plays may be a finely-tuned special, custom-crafted to his liking – the goal is for him to win with the Swoosh on display, and the details of what he uses to get there will probably never be known outside his immediate circle.
 

McIlroy rubbed a little salt in the wound for his former friends at Titleist with comments he made after his victory at the Dubai Championship Sunday. Asked what he would do with his clubs now that he had played his last round with them, he responded (laughing), “I’m not sure yet, I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll keep them as a bit of a memento.” 

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Of course, you can’t talk about Rory McIlroy these days without also talking about Tiger Woods. Not only are the two knee-deep in a palsy-walsy “bromance” of a sort that would have been unthinkable for Woods to get involved in – at least with a competitive rival – in his glory days, they are going to be stablemates in the Nike Golf empire.

With three wins – but no majors – on his record in 2012, and a new wunderkind potentially relegating him to a second-fiddle position at Nike, speculation about what lies ahead for a sputtering Tiger Woods is the subject of much discussion in golf circles these days. Johnny also had something to say about what’s to come for Tiger:

“I think Tiger will have a good year; obviously he’s due to win a Masters. If he can win a Masters and get that monkey [off his back]…The old career is gone – it’s like it’s past history; somebody else did it. Now he’s got kind of a new time of his life, which just about every golfer goes through from 35 on. It’ll be interesting to see if he can get the little bugs out of his head, the worries and this and that.” 

“Right now the young guys aren’t scared of him, that’s the big difference. Before everybody was scared to death of him, but now it’s sort of like ‘Yeah, yeah, you were great, unbelievably great, but that was before – now it’s our turn.’ That’s what he’s got to overcome.”

Love him or hate him – there is rarely any middle ground – Johnny Miller is always worth listening to. When he’s in the mood to talk he’ll tell you exactly what he’s thinking, and even if you don’t agree with what he says, you have to admit that there are few in the world of golf who have as much credibility to back up their opinions.