27% of pros expect Rory McIlroy to complete slam at Augusta
But the good news for the 25-year-old is that he is far more popular than defending champion Bubba Watson, who cannot rely on too much support if he gets into a fight at Augusta National.
Those were among the results gleaned by an ESPN.com survey of 103 tour professionals — 21 of whom were Major champions — who anonymously answered questions on a wide range of topics.
Asked if McIlroy would be wearing a green jacket on Sunday, 28 players said yes, 72 said no and three abstained.
Asked which player they would not help in a fight in the car park, Watson got double the number of responses (22.6%) of second-place finisher Patrick Reed (11%). Rory Sabbatini was third and Robert Allenby fourth.
Other topics covered in the survey included slow play and recreational drugs — Kevin Na was judged in need of the first one-shot penalty in 20 years on the PGA Tour, narrowly ahead of Ben Crane, while 40 players felt the Tour should stop testing for marijuana.
And on the subject of Tiger Woods, only 7% thought he would not win another major before the start of the season. However, after Woods missed the cut in Phoenix and withdrew from his next event after 11 holes, the numbers became 50/50.
Meanwhile veteran BBC commentator Peter Alliss has said that attempts to give women equal rights in golf have “caused mayhem”.
St Andrews and Royal St George’s have both voted to admit female members for the first time but Alliss told the Radio Times magazine that equality for women had “buggered up the game for a lot of people”.
“There’s been a hell of a row because four golf courses that hold the Open didn’t have women members,” he said. “I’m told the Ladies Golf Union has lost 150,000 members since equality for women came in. Hundreds of women have left clubs because they’ve gone from paying half fare to full fare. It’s caused mayhem. When I was at Muirfield a couple of years ago talking to a few of the lady members, I said, ’What about this equality? You must be happy about that?’ ‘God no,’ they said. ’We can come here and do what we like, we can play golf and don’t pay anything’.”
He added: “The equality thing is a great part of golf. Equality for women: a few people battled away to get it, they got it, and they have buggered up the game for a lot of people.”
nTiger Woods arrived at Augusta last night and, perhaps pointedly, headed straight to the short game area of the practice range. Gary Player is among those who have suggested Woods could be suffering from the “yips” with his chipping and pitching, but there appeared no sign of that as he hit a wide variety of shots before moving to the long-game area.
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