The Official Golf Thread

[Milltown Row2]

McIlroy was muck. All weekend he was ropey. Scrambled well which helped him but was very average at best. Goes to show how good he actually is given he can contend with his game in such bad shape. Leaked a lot of Drivers and Irons right. Taylormade should make him a twist face putter.

McIlroy shot an excellent 65 on Saturday, no dropped shots and a number of clutch putts. When good, as it was a lot of the time, his driving was superb. A similar performance yesterday and he would have been in green. His problem at Augusta seems one of timing; if he had switched rounds around as it were, he might have had more momentum yesterday and spooked Reed.

He holed out for eagle on the 8th when his chip deserved nothing more than a par. Granted he holed a few putts but it was his scrambling that pulled him through. The 65 papered over a lot of cracks that were exposed on Sunday when the course was arguably playing at its easiest.
But as I said it's testimony to how good he is when he can contend when not playing well.

He's won four majors! But sure, carry on

[Tony Baloney]

Some people have been questioning Harry Diamond on the bag as potentially another "yes man" which was the allegation against JP. I would have thought a mate (albeit an inexperienced caddy) would be more empowered to call him out.

[Boycey]

McIlroy was muck. All weekend he was ropey. Scrambled well which helped him but was very average at best. Goes to show how good he actually is given he can contend with his game in such bad shape. Leaked a lot of Drivers and Irons right. Taylormade should make him a twist face putter.

McIlroy shot an excellent 65 on Saturday, no dropped shots and a number of clutch putts. When good, as it was a lot of the time, his driving was superb. A similar performance yesterday and he would have been in green. His problem at Augusta seems one of timing; if he had switched rounds around as it were, he might have had more momentum yesterday and spooked Reed.

He holed out for eagle on the 8th when his chip deserved nothing more than a par. Granted he holed a few putts but it was his scrambling that pulled him through The 65 papered over a lot of cracks that were exposed on Sunday when the course was arguably playing at its easiest.
But as I said it's testimony to how good he is when he can contend when not playing well.

That's how golf works most of the time, usually the boy that scrambles the best wins. It's not all rounds like Spieths yesterday, Spieth played sublimely Thurs and Sun and scrambled round the best he could the other 2 days. I've seen several people including yourself say how shite McIlroy was yet if he'd holed 3/4 shortish range putts as he'd done the 3 previous days he'd of been right in the mix on the back 9.

[Boycey]

Some people have been questioning Harry Diamond on the bag as potentially another "yes man" which was the allegation against JP. I would have thought a mate (albeit an inexperienced caddy) would be more empowered to call him out.

I reckon the guy that was in the Sky studio all week, Billy Foster, is the guy who should be on the bag..

[yellowcard]

Some people have been questioning Harry Diamond on the bag as potentially another "yes man" which was the allegation against JP. I would have thought a mate (albeit an inexperienced caddy) would be more empowered to call him out.

I don't know if Diamond is the right caddy or not but people love searching for reasons why after failure. His choice of caddy had nothing to do with him missing a load of putts inside 10 feet. 

[Puckoon]

I think it's not a bad moment to step back and recognize the phenomenal players over the last 30 years who have NOT won a major, or a masters - let alone 4 majors. Some big big names on that list. I believe Rory will get over the hump, but it is hard to win a major! It is hard to win the Masters! Norman, Monty, Phil at the US Open, Westwood, Sergio until last year. It's never a slam dunk for any of these players.

[Minder]

I think it's not a bad moment to step back and recognize the phenomenal players over the last 30 years who have NOT won a major, or a masters - let alone 4 majors. Some big big names on that list. I believe Rory will get over the hump, but it is hard to win a major! It is hard to win the Masters! Norman, Monty, Phil at the US Open, Westwood, Sergio until last year. It's never a slam dunk for any of these players.

Yeah and the competition for McIlroy at present is formidable, especially from the US. All current major winners under 30, I'm sure McIlroy will win more majors but I think people were getting carried away a few years ago saying he could catch Woods or Nicklaus.

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Some people have been questioning Harry Diamond on the bag as potentially another "yes man" which was the allegation against JP. I would have thought a mate (albeit an inexperienced caddy) would be more empowered to call him out.

+1.

A mate is more likely to tell you to f**k off if your about to try something ridiculous as oppossed to some guy who gets 10% no matter what. Lets not forget Harry is a pretty good golfer himself its not like its just a drinking buddy carrying the bag

[JPGJOHNNYG]

I think it's not a bad moment to step back and recognize the phenomenal players over the last 30 years who have NOT won a major, or a masters - let alone 4 majors. Some big big names on that list. I believe Rory will get over the hump, but it is hard to win a major! It is hard to win the Masters! Norman, Monty, Phil at the US Open, Westwood, Sergio until last year. It's never a slam dunk for any of these players.

Yeah and the competition for McIlroy at present is formidable, especially from the US. All current major winners under 30, I'm sure McIlroy will win more majors but I think people were getting carried away a few years ago saying he could catch Woods or Nicklaus.

He had 4 he can easily win another 4 he still has time. 8 majors would make him one of the top 5 players of all time. He does need to wise up though he has such a strict fitness and diet regime to get the extra 1% to then spunk a major season away over a kick around with mates was farcical

[Puckoon]

If Rory gets in the 8-9 club along with a Player and Arnie he will have done well. There are a lot of good golfers now, all with incredible belief, physiques, swing speeds. The ball has overtaken most courses but you still got to get that f**ker in the hole.

I believe we are in a golden era of golf

[seafoid]

is Kimmage going after Tiger now??

https://www.independent.ie/sport/golf/paul-kimmage-he-never-gave-me-hgh-or-peds-ive-never-taken-that-my-entire-life-36762741.html

https://www.independent.ie/sport/golf/us-masters/paul-kimmage-on-tiger-woods-he-was-set-to-win-25-majors-but-life-got-in-the-way-36785197.html

[Orior]

If we are looking for reasons for Rory's bad form on Sunday then I would suggest that he needed to  spend more time on the range. From what I saw, he was too relaxed. He should have been 100% focused on the first drive, instead of thinking about his winners speech.

[thewobbler]

Too much overthinking it here. Reed played a blinder and Rory would have needed a 67 on the final day to go level with him, or it would have been another hard luck story. Of course that 67 is doable, but it's not doable around Augusta with a cold putter.

I'd suggest he just lost a bit of interest once he realised he couldn't force the win. Nothing more sinister than that.

His recent better putting has been largely attributed to feel and a return to trusting his instinct. I'm not sure if more time in the range would improve that.

If a caddy is even halfway as important as some believe then Diamond did a fine job this week, as for 64 holes Rory player very measured and pragmatic golf. His bag man might have misread every putt wrong by 3mm on that front 9 yesterday, but I doubt it, for as mentioned above, Rory is back to putting with feel.

The last 20 majors have seen 17 different winners. This is golf in 2018. There won't be Tiger style domination of this sport for many, many years, and it's a tad unfair to lambast Rory for not doing so.

[Puckoon]

Too much overthinking it here. Reed played a blinder and Rory would have needed a 67 on the final day to go level with him, or it would have been another hard luck story. Of course that 67 is doable, but it's not doable around Augusta with a cold putter.

I'd suggest he just lost a bit of interest once he realised he couldn't force the win. Nothing more sinister than that.

His recent better putting has been largely attributed to feel and a return to trusting his instinct. I'm not sure if more time in the range would improve that.

If a caddy is even halfway as important as some believe then Diamond did a fine job this week, as for 64 holes Rory player very measured and pragmatic golf. His bag man might have misread every putt wrong by 3mm on that front 9 yesterday, but I doubt it, for as mentioned above, Rory is back to putting with feel.

The last 20 majors have seen 17 different winners. This is golf in 2018. There won't be Tiger style domination of this sport for many, many years, and it's a tad unfair to lambast Rory for not doing so.

I don't think Rory's caddies even look at the putts. Maybe JP in the past but not now. One minor criticism, from an 11 index to a multiple major champion is that he played very very quickly yesterday. Specifically on the greens. Quick to mark, line and hit. Perhaps that's an intentional mindset before nonsense can creep in, but I don't think it served him well yesterday.

Brad Faxon had been working with him in recent months on freeing up his mind with his putting stroke the way he is clearly free when he is hitting the driver.

[Orior]

The sooner we have "ready golf" on tour the better.