Lesson well learned as McIlroy leaves on a high

“I’VE learned a lot of things this week and the main one is not to dance in bunkers,” beamed Rory McIlroy after he had played the final 10 holes of his first Masters in six under par.

He duly added a 70 to his previous scores of 72, 73 and 71 for a two under par total of 286, an admirable performance by any standards, even if he himself admitted to a little disappointment.

If McIlroy was wise beyond his 19 years and 11 and a half months ever before he arrived in Augusta, he now realises the game of golf is the kind of imponderable even he may never fully figure out. Nevertheless, what a brave face he put on things over the weekend in spite of all the hullabaloo that surrounded him after the extraordinary incidents that occurred around the 18th green on Friday night.