My good friend and LPGA player Irene Cho asked me to caddie for her a year ago in the Safeway event in Portland. A solid week by any measure, Irene finished her Sunday on a tear, and nearly landed in the top-10 after a three birdie over her last four holes finish helped jump her up the leaderboard. She was feeling confident, and excited, and ready to hit up the next event in Canada with some serious momentum pushing her along, but something terrible happened; the airlines "lost" her golf clubs (I put that in quotation marks because I'm fairly certain golf clubs don't just disappear, but possibly might disappear in the trunk of one of the workers handling the sticks). Irene was stuck playing with a bag of unfamiliar clubs, and while she never got comfortable with them that week, it took months for her to get the bag of clubs together she wanted and felt comfortable with. What's the point? Losing your golf clubs on flights is something that could haunt a professional golfer for a long while.
Cue in Rory McIlroy. After three rounds of the Masters, Rory looked to be the most popular, and soon to be most heralded, golfer of 2011. But a final round 80 gutted the 21-year-old, and he had to leave Augusta, tail between his legs, in hopes of finding his game at his next event in Malaysia. He flew with eventual Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, and although they took a private jet, his golf clubs somehow got lost.
Via The Telegraph ...
"It hasn't happened often, its one of these things you can't help it, going through so many timezones and so many connecting flights your bags are going to get lost sometimes," McIlroy said.
"Hopefully they turn up tonight and I'll be ready to go tomorrow."
Now, I'm not genius here, but if a top professional golfer's clubs went missing after a private flight, the first thing I'd be thinking is someone lifted them. "Oh, these are Rory McIlroy's clubs. Well, now they are my clubs." How in the world are they not thinking this?
Also, talk about a rough couple of days. McIlroy has the entire world watch him completely collapse, and when he gets to an event that he can play in the comfort of the European Tour, he doesn't even have sticks to slap it around with.
Hopefully they find them so he can at least go out on the one place he's probably comfortable right now; the golf course.
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10 comments:
He is probably thinking that his clubs were stolen, but is taking the high ground as far as the press is concerned by not calling it out. You don't want to call it out only to have them show up later after truly being lost.
Irene is excused because she was the victim of whatever an airline does with baggage. Rory, on the other hand, has undoubtedly been pampered to the point that he no longer feels the need to take responsibility for himself and his equipment -- someone is always around to do it for him. Either the private airplane he went to Malaysia on didn't have the weight capacity to carry fuel for the trip and sticks (so they were sent on an airline and they've yet to arrive or been confiscated by person, or persons, unknown), or his handlers mishandled the clubs.
Whatever happened, wouldn't he be better off if took responsibility for all his stuff?
Diane - how much responsibility can Rory take? He isn't driving the plane, & he isn't in charge of loading it, so at some point he does what all of us have to do, and got on and took a seat...not sure what else you would have liked him to do. He paid for the flight I'm sure so at some point he had to leave it up to the plane's personnel to handle and he in my opinion is at no fault. Obviously he trusts that the airline and the workers are reputable and his person and his stuff, are safe. Did you want him to go over the flight route with the pilot too?
Did Swartzel lose his clubs also? What a find for a baggage handler. The Masters winner and the 54 hole leader. eBay baby!
They used the private jet to get to Heathrow from Augusta, then transferred to a commercial flight from London to KL. That's what i found out from a quick search. Thanks Diane, it's obviously Rory's fault for being so pampered and nothing to do with luggage going missing during a transfer, as seems to happen every day. Never let facts get in the way of a strong opinion, eh?
You always pay attention to your stuff - especially if its your livelihood! Long time ago I drove Bob Hope during a charity golf event. He didn't care about anything except his golf shoes. He asked me at least a dozen times where they were till I finally boarded his jet and put them on the seat next to his!
Someone has to say it. " I think his clubs went missing after the 3rd round."
You said...But a final round 80 gutted the 21-year-old, and he had to leave Augusta, tail between his legs.
From what I watched and heard Rory stood with his head high after the bad round that he had. He was far from putting his tail between his legs.
Well he should have....he's a Pro and looked like an Amateur on Sunday!
Your clubs are lost,but after sunday who cares!!!!!!!!If you lost the green jacket.
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