McIlroy admits faulty swing caused him to ‘see red’

Rory McIlroy has moved to defuse tomorrow’s face-to-face with the media by revealing exclusively to a US magazine that walking off the course at the Honda Classic last Friday “was not the right thing to do”.

In a move designed to take the pressure off McIlroy ahead of his news conference at the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Donald Trump’s Doral Resort in Miami, the world number one told Sports Illustrated’s Golf.com that he was “seeing red” when he walked off the course after completing just eight holes of his second round in the Honda Classic and that his toothache was an easy excuse.

“It was a reactive decision,” McIlroy said. “What I should have done is take my drop, chip it on, try to make a five and play my hardest on the back nine, even if I shot 85.