What is going on with Rory McIlroy and these all too frequent meltdowns in the big events? The latest was at this week’s BMW Championship in Wentworth, England, and wasn’t pretty. The club throwing incident in a two-over 74 in the first round was followed by an ungodly 7-over 79 in the second round and a missed cut in the biggest regular season event on the European Tour. One of the post round reports had McIlroy indicating that he wasn’t working hard enough. Huh? Has he let the fame and fortune go to his head or is it something else? Was there also this supposed lack of preparation before the missed cut at the TPC? Either McIlroy has something going on in his personal life that’s causing a distraction that nobody knows about, or he should slow down, travel less, and dedicate more time to playing a consistent schedule against PGA Tour competition, which is still the best in the world.
Jason Dufner, the total opposite, plods along with minimal fanfare hitting fairways and greens and has snuck up on the PGA Tour with a couple wins sandwiched around getting married. Talk about the poster child for getting your life, golf, moon, and stars aligned. A quick look at his stats shows superb ball striking with mediocre putting. Indeed, his performance at the courses that require deft touch on difficult greens (The Masters and PLAYERS) was less than stellar with a tie for 24th and a tie for 68th respectively. Big pressure events like Memorial and U.S. Open are coming up where players need to putt great and manage their nerves to contend but with Duf on cruise control, I expect him to win this weekend at Colonial. Memorial is up next and should be a great one with the return of Tiger and all the drama of the world’s best on the same stage.
Who’s going to win at Jack’s place?
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