McIlroy out to prove Ernie right
Such is the potential of the 21-year-old from Holywood that he has long been tipped to do great things in the game but his last-day meltdown at the Masters in April, when McIlroy blew his four-stroke 54-hole lead in spectacular fashion with a triple-bogey seven at the 10th hole, raised questions about whether the Irishman had the temperament to match his talent.
Speaking at Congressional Country Club yesterday, three-time major winner and two-time US Open champion Els backed his International Sports Management stablemate to learn from that experience and not just win a major — but win plenty.
“I’m probably the best guy to ask for advice because I’ve done so many things in my career where I didn’t quite close a lot of events,” the South African said. “But he’s very young. He’s still learning. He’s got all the talent in the world. He’s a future number one without a doubt.
“First time I ever saw him, I thought, he’s incredible. And he is incredible. And he’s still learning. That’s why — I mean, he made some mistakes there, and he’s still learning. He’s 21-years-old; he’s not perfect. Nobody is perfect.
“But he can really change, maybe the history again. He’s got that kind of talent. When he breaks through, he can just open the floodgates, but he’s just got to break through.
“He obviously had an opportunity there, and hopefully he’s learned from it and he didn’t get too despondent about screwing up on that 10th hole.
“But if he keeps learning and keeps going, keeps his head up, boy, I think he’s going to win a lot of majors, but obviously he has to win the first to win a lot.”
McIlroy ended up shooting an 80 at Augusta National to fall back into a tie for 15th but despite the obvious disappointment, that finish gave him his sixth top-20 finish in his nine majors to date, including three third-place finishes.
That sort of form on the big occasion indicates that ‘The Big Easy’ may be on to something, yet when told of Els’ prediction, during his own press conference at Congressional last night, McIlroy visibly squirmed in his seat before embarking on an exercise in expectation control.
“I’ve learned over the past few months you can’t take a lot of notice from what other people say. You have to go out and do it yourself. There’s no point in everyone saying you’re going to be a major champion when you’re not one,” McIlroy reasoned. “You have to go out and prove to them and prove to yourself that you deserve to be one.
“You have to go out and prove them right and prove to yourself that you deserve to be one.
“It’s very flattering and it’s great that people are saying these things about me but I need to do it first, and I haven’t done it yet. I just need to go out and play the golf that everyone thinks I’m capable of. And if I can do that for four days, then hopefully I’ll be sitting in front of you guys (the media) on Sunday night and maybe saying, ‘yeah, maybe I could be a multiple major champion’.”
It was an impressive way to handle a potentially awkward situation, where a misunderstood throwaway line can leave a young golfer labelled as arrogant or disrespectful. McIlroy, though, was simply following the example he set as he trudged off the 18th green at Augusta National, facing his adversity head on by facing the world’s media with dignity and grace at the moment of his greatest disappointment.
The subject of that horrible afternoon was naturally raised again last night and in particular his decision to face the music rather than skulk back to the locker room. Had he calculated that a good impression had to be made in front of television viewers around the world?
“I think there’s a little bit of that in there, that millions of people are going to watch that interview and sort of see what you have to say for yourself. But I had five or six holes to think about what I was going to say so I was pretty prepared,” he said to roars of laughter.
