Two shots clear with eight holes remaining, Rory McIlroy was odds-on to clinch his first win in 16 months at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic. But a mixture of some wrong decisions, poor shots and excellent play by his opponent means that he heads for Pebble Beach next week searching for that elusive victory.
Not that he will be overly concerned about his game. The Northern Irishman has returned from his three-month sabbatical by a shooting 40 under total over eight rounds in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, finishing second and third. McIlroy’s driving is as long as ever and his short game is much improved on last year. Even the putter was cooperating this week.
Yet, McIlroy knows himself that he let this one get away. Credit must go to Li Haotong for not being intimidated by McIlroy and forcing the issue. Haotong was red-hot on the greens, and holed every putt inside 10 feet in his final round.
Rory’s regret will be that he put Li in a position to do so.
“From being two ahead standing on the 11th tee to being level going into 16, I just don’t know,” he said.
“It was a couple of bad shots, a couple of poor decisions, a couple of mental errors, a few tentative putts out there as well.
“I just wish I could get a couple of those holes back.”
The tension seemed to get into McIlroy’s game from the 11th hole, where he hit a poor tee shot into the bunker at the par 3, short-siding himself and ending up with bogey. He three-putted the next hole for bogey at the par 5, then perhaps the key moment of the round was at the 16th hole.
McIlroy hit a poor drive, then compounded the problem by trying a risky shot from the trees rather than laying up into the fairway. The result may have ended up with a bogey anyway, but by giving himself no angle at the green, he reduced his chances of getting up-and-down. In the end, he birdied the final two holes, which may have been good enough for a playoff, but for the good play of Li.
“If someone had told me at the start of the year, ‘you’d finish third and second your first two events’, I’d say, ‘yeah I’d take that’,” McIlroy said
“But being in the positions I’ve been in and having two close calls the first couple of weeks of the year, it’s a little difficult.”
The undisputed greatest player of his era, Tiger Woods, returned to action on the PGA Tour this week to much fanfare.
It was great that Tiger did not let his many diehard fans down, with a solid top 25 finish in his first official event back in action in almost a year.
Remarkably, over four hours after Tiger finished his round, Jason Day and Alex Noren were still grinding out in a playoff to win the Farmers Insurance Open. Neither player had surrendered after five holes as darkness fell, with Jason Day winning when it resumed today
An epic playoff, where two great golfers played out the longest playoff in the tournament’s history, was certainly one reason why play could not be completed in time. The other reason was also clear-cut – the scourge of slow play.
Monday finishes are almost exclusively reserved for weather-affected tournaments, where a stoppage in play leads to the tee times falling behind schedule. It was ideal weather in Torrey Pines all week.
The final group in the Farmers Insurance Open took six hours. It reached a farcical stage, where the final hole took 34 minutes to play. This was largely due to one of the most painful passages of play in golf you’ll ever see from JB Holmes.
It took 4 minutes and 10 seconds for Holmes to hit his shot into the par 5 18th hole. He needed an eagle to reach the playoff, and after the longest deliberation, he decided to lay up anyway, and poorly. It was excruciating to watch, and the worst possible advert for golf. It was also stunningly poor sportsmanship, as Noren, with a genuine chance to win, was waiting to hit in the fairway.
When asked afterwards did he regret taking so much time to play his shot on 18, Holmes said “No, I was still trying to win. So that’s part of it.”
A player is supposed to have only 40 seconds to hit their shot on the PGA Tour, not 250 seconds. Where is the incentive for Holmes to become a quicker player, if he is never penalised for taking so long?
The golf authorities are so stringent in penalising players for other rules, yet the slow play rule on Tour is consistently ignored. And sadly the more it is ignored, the more the general public will ignore golf on TV, whether Tiger Woods is on or not.
The Power Drive 