Still friends but G-Mac and Rory to start seeing other people

Graeme McDowell might have called it a "conscious uncoupling" but whatever way you put it, the Ryder Cup star admitted his golfing dynamic with Rory McIlroy was very different now to when they first played together five years ago.

Like Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow’s decision earlier this year to separate, their statement unleashing the above phrase on an unsuspecting public, McDowell said yesterday that Europe captain Paul McGinley had been right to suggest he and McIlroy might be better off apart when the 40th Ryder Cup matches get under way on Friday morning.

Though he insisted his friendship with McIlroy remained intact after a year of tension stemming from their involvement in a legal dispute between the world No 1 and their management company Horizon, he had seen the beginning of the end of their partnership in fourballs two years ago at Medinah when they were beaten 2&1 by Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley on the first afternoon.