Why I must play like a kid again

Surrounded by kids from the First Tee of Miami, Rory McIlroy hunkered down yesterday to pose for pictures and put his meltdown in perspective.

Forgetting about the swing glitches, the Nike millions and the constant intrusion into his private life, he remembered some advice he was given shortly before his second major win in last year’s US PGA at Kiawah Island and tried to get some much needed perspective — Play like you did when you were a kid, smile, and learn to dig deep.

“I actually think, in the long run, (last) Friday will be a blessing in disguise,” he told a news conference where 75 reporters, 10 TV crews and dozens of photographers hung on every word.

“It was like it released a valve and all that pressure that I’ve been putting on myself just went away. I’m like, just go out and have fun. It’s not life or death out there. It’s only a game. I’d sort of forgotten that this year.”

The 23-year-old did not stick around long after his first public face to face with the press since last week’s hasty decision to walk off the course when seven over after completing just eight holes of his second round.

But apart from refusing to admit to any problems adjusting to his new Nike clubs, it was a frank and honest exchange and restored faith in him as an authentic sports star who tells it as it is and refuses to hide behind cliches.

“It was a build-up of high expectations from myself,” he said: “My tooth was bothering me, but probably not enough to quit.

“I learned that when going gets tough, I’ve got to stick in there a bit more. I’ve got to grind it out. There’s no excuse for quitting and it doesn’t set a good example for the kids watching me, trying to emulate way do.

“It wasn’t good for a whole lot of reasons, for the tournament, the people coming out watching me. I feel like I let a lot of people down with what I did last week, and for that I am very sorry.”

While he all but admitted that his Twitter exchange with ex-Boyzone singer Ronan Keating and the hash tag #FTB did indeed mean “F**K the begrudgers”, he held his hands up and admitted he was in the wrong and didn’t want a conflict with the press.

“It’s a little private joke between friends and something I probably can’t divulge on live TV,” he said in reference to what they told their combined 1.93 million Twitter followers.

“No matter how bad I was playing, I should have stayed out there. I should have tried to shoot the best score possible even though it probably wasn’t going to be good enough to make the cut.

“At that point in time, I was just all over the place, and you know, I saw red. It was a mistake and everyone makes mistakes and I’m learning from them. Some people have the pleasure of making mistakes in private. Most of my mistakes are in the public eye.

“So it is what it is, and I regret what I did. But it’s over now and it won’t happen again. There’s no excuse for quitting and it doesn’t set a good example for the kids watching me.

“I feel like I let a lot of people down with what I did last week and for that, I am very sorry.”

McIlroy broke the ice with his opening remarks thanks to a soft opening question from the moderator and a joke about 10-man Manchester United’s Champions League exit to Real Madrid on Tuesday. “I suppose, Rory, just go straight into the heart of the matter here and how disappointed were you with Manchester United’s loss yesterday?” the European Tour’s Michael Gibbons asked.

“It was not a red card, I’ll tell you that much,” McIlroy insisted before being asked about his auto-expulsion at the Honda Classic. He said: “I gave myself a red card last week.”

Understandably, given his massive Nike deal, McIlroy could not blame his new clubs for his meltdown and pointed to a swing gone wrong.

“We were trying to find the balance between making a bit of a swing change and finding some playability in it so that I can actually go out there and play and not think about it. But we realise there’s no quick fixes in golf. You just have to get to the root of the problem, no pun intended, and fix it.”

Revealing he had put in more than 30 hours on the range since last week, he said: “I’ve worked my ass off over the last four or five days to really try and get this right.”

With no cut this week, he knows he has time to find his game and said: “I’m not putting any pressure on myself this week to perform. All I care about is my swing. Get that back on track and the results will follow. It doesn’t make a difference what deal or what clubs I play, that’s irrelevant.”

There has been speculation the meltdown was caused by a break-up of his relationship with tennis star Caroline Wozniacki but McIlroy moved quickly to shoot down those rumours.

“Everything on that front is great and I’m looking forward to seeing her next week when she gets to Miami.”