Els regrets not trying to talk McIlroy out of Honda walkout

Ernie Els regrets not making more of an effort to talk Rory McIlroy out of his shocking decision to walkout at the Honda Classic.

But despite efforts by McIlroy’s management company to defuse tomorrow’s face to face with the media ahead of the WGC-Cadillac Championship, the 23-year old continues to add fuel to the already raging fire of controversy.

After confessing to Sports Illustrated in an online interview on Monday that walking off “was not the right thing to do”, the world No 1 will have more questions to answer today over a Twitter exchange with pop star Ronan Keating and the meaning of the hashtag #FTB.

Keating has the words “F**k the begrudgers” tattooed on the inside of his wrist and regularly uses the #FTB hashtag in his tweets.

Now McIlroy has joined the club, prompting some critics to speculate that he is lashing out at the negative coverage he has received worldwide for letting his poor golf get the better of him at the Honda Classic, where he admits he was “seeing red” and then used a toothache as a tenuous excuse for walking off after just eight holes.

McIlroy tweeted: “For every complex problem, there is a simple solution. #FTB,” and received a response from Keating which read, “loving the hash tag bro. #FTB” McIlroy then replied “@shanelowrygolf told me you would like it, ;) hope you are well.”

McIlroy later tweeted a Nike motivational image bearing the words: “Success isn’t given. It’s earned. On the track, on the field, in the gym. With blood, sweat and the occasional tear.” He added the hashtag #FTB.

Perhaps it means Feel The Burn, but as Els pointed out at Doral yesterday, you sometimes makes silly mistakes when you are just 23 years old.

“Listen, I was also 22, 23; I’m 43 now,” Els said. “I look back, I did a lot of silly things and what he’s done is nothing compared to what I did. Speak to my parents.

“But when it comes to being where he’s at, you’ve got to maybe think a little bit more than two minutes. In a couple of years’ time, he won’t even think about this or talk about this.

“If he wins this week, it will be the last thing we talk about, it will be history and that’s what it should be.

“He’s a great kid, he’s a great player and if he admits he’s made a mistake, then that’s that and let’s move on.”

Els revealed that he saw McIlroy “practising his tail off” at the Bear’s Club at the weekend and ran unto him again invitational at Seminole on Monday, adding: “So he’s obviously working hard at his game. We did talk a little bit in private.”

The Big Easy admitted he regretted not trying to talk McIlroy out of his walk out when the Holywood native shook his hand and abandoned the South African and playing partner Mark Wilson on the 18th fairway at PGA National last Friday.

“No, we didn’t quite talk to him. But I must say, when I shook his hand on 18, I wanted to say something to him, but I didn’t, and I kind of regret that,” Els said. “But you know, it was obviously a heat of the moment thing. He is who he is. You’ve got to respect what the individual at that moment is like, and he wanted to get off.

“And we heard that his wisdom tooth was bothering him, and if that was the reason, that was that. I would have been out of my depth at that stage to say something to him if something was bothering him. So I didn’t, but I thought I should have.”

Asked if he’d have bothered to tee it up if he was suffering from toothache, Els said: “I don’t know. I think I would have taken a shitload of Advil. That’s a hard one. If it’s a cold morning, it would have hurt more.”