Rory left to rue fateful decision to ‘go for it’

RORY McILROY’S bid for a second Major title effectively ended the moment he picked his seven iron out of the bag and took aim at a tree root on Thursday.

His decision not to play sideways and safely out of trouble when his tee shot at the third hole rested in front of an exposed root cost him dearly. By going at the pin from his lie, the club struck the root on the follow through and McIlroy jarred his right wrist.

One strained tendon later, allied to some problematic putting and the 22-year-old US Open champion was down among the also-rans at Atlanta Athletic Club and left with a definite case of what might have been, having come into the final Major so full of confidence following a top-10 last week at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio.

“Coming in after a solid week at Akron last week and feeling as if I was hitting it well; that shot on Thursday I’ll think about for a while,” McIlroy said.

“And then I felt as if I was under par for the tournament after seven holes on Friday, and then I hit that ball in the water on 17 and ended up making triple, so those two shots I’ll think about but I have plenty more chances to win this tournament.”

Hindsight, as McIlroy suggested, is a wonderful thing and the still relatively inexperienced golfer from Holywood gained some sympathy from Lee Westwood, the world number two and ISM management stablemate.

“A 22-year-old Lee Westwood probably would have taken it on, yeah,” Westwood said of McIlroy’s fateful first-round shot.

“A 38-year-old Lee Westwood probably wouldn’t. I guess that’s why people turn up to watch him, don’t they.”

Informed of Westwood’s comment following his third-round on Saturday, which left him 14 shots off the pace heading into last night’s final round, McIlroy said: “Of course, you learn more from your mistakes than do you doing anything else.

“If I had pulled the shot off on Thursday and everything would have been fine, then I probably would have said, ‘yeah, I’ll do it again’ or whatever but if I was in that position again, maybe the 23-year-old Rory McIlroy wouldn’t do it.”