Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose

I’VE come to realise there’s little enough in sport that can’t be explained by that mantra of the Dillon Panthers, the fictional Texas high school football team of marvellous NBC show Friday Night Lights.

Take Rory McIlroy’s tepid showing at Sandwich last weekend. “What I’m playing for now is a place in history, not for money,” said Rory on BBC documentary Major Breakthrough after his US Open win. Uh-oh! Nothing clouds the eyes more than taking them off the dollar.

Then, when the red-tops filled this week with affairs of Rory’s heart, you knew Royal St George’s had been a bridge too far. Couldn’t win.