McIlroy wise beyond his years

A NUMBER of the world’s finest fell foul of Turnberry’s treacherous 16th hole yesterday. The 455 yards par 4 is fronted by the menacing Wilson Burn and even if the player clears it, anything but a perfect approach almost invariably rolls back into the hazard.

Graeme McDowell, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood, three vastly experienced players, ran up double bogeys there. But not 20-year-old Rory McIlroy who knew what dangers lurked there and took evasive and highly-successful action.

“There’s a scoreboard out in the distance that’s covered in green net and stuff and you hit it right of that,” he advised. “I hit my drive right on it and had 114 yards to the pin. My sand wedge goes about 115, but where the pin was, I just saw it and so I took 15 yards off a wedge and played past the pin just to the left. So I just played it smartly, and I was lucky enough to hole about a 25-foot putt.”