My game bent, not broken, insists McIlroy

Rory McIlroy shrugged off the club mangling incident that marred his US Open finale as nothing more than “a moment of frustration and silly thing to do”.

But whatever about his lack of remorse over throwing a club and bending another out of shape in a fit of pique, he seems genuinely sorry that he put 14 Nike clubs in the bag in January and only played four and a half competitive rounds over the next six weeks.

The 24-year-old’s $200m-plus move to Nike in January has brought him nothing but heartbreak so far this year and he admits he made a major mistake trying to be competitive against the best players in the world using equipment he clearly hadn’t worked hard enough to adjust his game to.