Dark days now behind Rory

Rory McIlroy admits that he simply “couldn’t cope with any more” when he suffered that mentalmeltdown at the Honda Classic last year and fled the course midway through his second round.

At the time he said he wasn’t in a good place mentally and while his official excuse was an aching wisdom tooth, the past year has revealed that there was so much going on in his life off the course that it was a miracle he didn’t have a breakdown even earlier.

Fast forward 12 months and McIlroy could not be in a better place mentally or physically and with his golf game humming like a well-tuned machine, he’s ready to make up for last year by gunning for a victory that will bring back memories of the 2012 Honda Classic win that made him world No 1 for the first time.

“Yeah, I’ve changed,” McIlroy said, finally at peace with his Nike stick and seemingly unperturbed by the lingering legal battle with Horizon Sports Management, the agents he sacked late last year.

“I am more mature, I am not as naive, I am more experienced. I guess I just know the world a little bit more.”

Asked if he would have a little more intent when he joins Masterschampion Scott and former Walker Cup rival Billy Horschel in the first tee tomorrow, he said: “No, but of course there is a sense that I need to make up for last year — and play 36!”

His joke said it all about the huge change in his circumstances on and off the course. Where 12 months ago he had legal problems brewing under the surface, not to mention a faulty golf game, he’s now got the perfect ball-driver combination and looks ready to beat all comers again.

“I guess there was a point last year that I was thinking of not playing here this year,” he said.

“But I owe it to the tournament and I owe it to the organisers to play because it is now my home town event.

“After what happened last year I feel like I should at least play here. I’ve played well here before and like the golf course so there is no reason why I shouldn’t play. I won here and got to world No 1.”

You can still sense some emotion in his voice when he reflects on that dark day last year when he soared to seven over par after eight holes, dumped his second shot in the water at the par-five 18th, shook hands with playing partners Ernie Els and Mark Wilson and headed for the car park.

“It feels like a long time ago, yeah, and coming in here last year, I was coming off the back of a couple of bad results in Abu Dhabi and the Match Play,” he said recalling his $20m a year move to Nike and the trouble he had getting used to the clubs and the pressure of expectation. “I was still getting used to new equipment, high expectations, and not really I guess not really being in control of my game.

“There were a lot of things going on at that time, as well. Obviously my game wasn’t where I wanted it to be. My mental state wasn’t quite where I needed it to be. There were a few things that were occupying my thoughts that probably didn’t need to be and shouldn’t have been, but it was just a very difficult time.

“I’m glad that everything has sort of just been cleared up. I’m happy with where I am now. I mean, it’s difficult to deal with, especially when you haven’t had to deal with it before. But everyone deals with it in different ways. I guess it was a little bit of a shock to the system for me and I just needed a little bit of time to deal with a few different things.

“I needed to change a couple of things in my game, but there was a lot of things I needed to change off the course, so that was one big thing, to sort of get my head right to be able to go on the course and just think about golf.”

Admitting that there was a touch of public hysteria surrounding his meltdown last year, he nodded and said: “It was, but you should never walk off the golf course, no matter how bad things are.

“It was just one of these days, I just felt like I couldn’t cope with anything more, especially not the way I was heading I was going to shoot 90. That was the last thing I needed.”

One of seven members of the world’s top 10 in action — the top three of TIger Woods, Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson are joined by Open winner Phil Mickelson — McIlroy feels ready to give a big performance.

“It’s not embarrassing because I think a lot of people in the same situation might have done the same thing,” he said of last year. “But I’ve learnt from it and I’ve moved on.

“I mean, it wasn’t my finest hour, but at the end of the day, everyone makes mistakes.”