Golf

Rory McIlroy finally catches up with Tiger Woods’s US Open message of support

World number two admits he changed his phone number in the aftermath of his Pinehurst final round collapse

Rory McIlroy talking with fellow Northern Ireland players Tom McKibbin and Darren Clarke during a practice round prior to the British Open at Troon. Scotland. Photograph: Harry How/Getty Images
Philip Reid at Royal Troon
Tue Jul 16 2024 - 16:55

There are consequences when you change your phone number. Even old friends can’t reach you. And when Tiger Woods bumped into Rory McIlroy here, and wondered why he hadn’t responded to a message he’d sent after the Northern Irishman’s US Open travails at Pinehurst last month, there was full disclosure:

“I changed my number two days after the US Open, so I didn’t get it until he told me about it today. I was like, ‘oh, thanks very much’. So I blanked Tiger Woods, which is probably not a good thing,” quipped McIlroy.

Problem was, though, that Woods had held off – for time to heal wounds – before tapping a text into his phone. By then McIlroy had changed his number so that the message lies somewhere in the ether.

“Tiger has been nothing but incredible to me over the course of my career – in the good moments and the bad. He sent me an incredible message after St Andrews in 2022,” said McIlroy, recalling that final round where it seemed he had the Claret Jug in his grasp only for Cameron Smith, and his magical putter, to steal in.

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Expanding further, McIlroy added: “I met Tiger when I was 15 years old, and I’ve built up a great relationship with him, his whole family. He really enjoys spending time with my mom and dad as well. It means a lot that he reached out. Actually it means a lot that he waited a few days to reach out, which if he hadn’t have waited that long I probably would have got it.

“But I caught up with him earlier. It’s always nice when your hero and the guy that you had on your bedroom wall is reaching out and offering words of encouragement.”

McIlroy returned to competition at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open having taken time off post-Pinehurst to heal some wounds inflicted by his late collapse in the US Open where he seemed set to end a 10-year drought in the Majors. Instead it was Bryson DeChambeau’s time.

“My game’s in really good shape. I had a nice reset after Pinehurst that was needed, and felt like I shook off a little bit of the rust last week [he finished tied-fourth] and played okay,” he said. “I felt like I probably could have given myself more of a chance to win the tournament. I thought it was a solid week. Again it’s like one eye on preparing for this week, but another eye on trying to get into contention as well.”

McIlroy played a practice round with Darren Clarke and Tom McKibbin – reunited with his caddie Dave McNeilly this week – and also had his putting coach Brad Faxon walking with them. There was another man too. Luke Donald. And it was his Europe Ryder Cup captain’s advice that he sought for putting on the slower greens.

“I don’t like to tinker too much with the putter. Fax was out there walking with me this morning, and so was Luke Donald. I really try to focus on the strike more than anything else here and put a good roll on it because any putt here that’s mis-struck just doesn’t get to the hole.

“So I sort of picked Luke’s brain a little bit, and he always said he liked to focus on the tempo of his stroke and really, if anything, make it a little shorter and a little brisker on greens like this. So that’s something, you know, the strike and maybe just think a little bit more about the tempo of the stroke, two good things this week.”

Philip Reid

Philip Reid

Philip Reid is Golf Correspondent of The Irish Times