Rory counts cost of early mistakes

Rory McIlroy’s moderate 2013 campaign continued in familiar mode at Sawgrass yesterday when a series of errors over the outward nine of his final round cost him whatever remote hope he might have entertained of catching the leaders in the Players Championship.

To the great credit of a player who has been criticised for flying the white flag when his chance of victory has disappeared, he didrecover superbly on the homeward journey, but it was too late for the 24 year-old to threaten Tiger Woods who, at 13 under, had moved two clear of the Scot Martin Laird, veteran Jeff Maggert, third round leader David Lingmerth from Sweden and Sergio Garcia.

An opening 66 left the world No 2 in the perfect position to challenge for the ‘fifth Major’ and although he lost ground with subsequent scores of 73 and 72, a big final day of which he is eminently capable might have put him back in the hunt.

A birdie at the long second was promising, but sloppy approach play combined with a stone cold putter led to dropped shots at the sixth, eighth and ninth, leaving him three under and nine off the pace.

To his credit, McIlroy plugged away and there was a graphic demonstration of his awesome ball striking when he drilled a glorious medium iron to within six feet for a birdie at the 13th.

Now very much back in the swing of things, McIlroy picked up further strokes at the 15th, 16th and the treacherous water-strewn 17th, where his nine-iron tee shot to the island green finished a yard from the hole.

He tapped in for a third successive birdie and pitched and putted for par on the last to close with a 70 for seven under par and a share of 13th with the leaders still on the course.

Meanwhile, the tournament ended on a low note for Pádraig Harrington, whose game collapsed after a likely looking 68 on Thursday.

He followed up with rounds of 76, 75 and 76 to finish seven over par in a share of 77th and second last place.

It was a second successive week of misery for the 41-year-old Dubliner who tied for last in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow after scores of 80 and 75.

Harrington will be avidly hoping for better things in this week’s Byron Nelson Classic at Irving, Texas, before returning home to contest the European Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth seven days later.

After a few bizarre experiments in a desperate attempt to improve the situation, he went a stage further over the last couple of weeks by experimenting with the belly putter. Even after the debacle at Quail Hollow, he persisted with the soon-to-be outlawed blade at Sawgrass. Thursday’s 68 sounded promising and while he struggled on the greens after that, there were other serious shortcomings in his game.

Meanwhile, Woods may have been seeking a 78th PGA Tour title, but even that impressive achievement was in danger of being overshadowed by a feud with Garcia.

Never the best of friends, Woods and Garcia traded verbal blows on Saturday and yesterday at Sawgrass to ensure the state of their relationship — or lack of it — is now a matter of public record.

Paired together in a third round played over two days due to bad weather, it took less than two holes for tensions to come to the surface, with Garcia feeling he was put off on his approach shot to the second by crowd noise caused by Woods preparing for his own shot from the trees.

Woods insisted he had been told by a marshal that Garcia had already played before pulling a fairway wood from his bag, with the fans cheering the indication that the world No 1 would attempt to go for the green on the par five.

Told about Garcia’s comments, Woods said it was “not real surprising he’s complaining about something.” And in response to that, Garcia said: “That’s fine. At least I’m true to myself. I know what I’m doing. He can do whatever he wants.”

Speaking after the third round was completed yesterday morning, Garcia was happy to confirm what had been suspected for many years.

“He’s not my favourite guy to play with,” the Spaniard said. “He’s not the nicest guy on Tour. So it will good for both us not to play together again [today].

“We don’t like each other. It doesn’t take a rocket engineer to figure that out. He is who he is. I am who I am. It’s best we’re not playing together again.”