What happened to Rory McIlroy on Friday?! And airport tears

Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I’m calling this the Weekend 9. Think of it as a spot to warm you up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’ll have thoughts. We’ll have tips. We’ll have tweets. But just nine in all, though sometimes maybe more and sometimes maybe less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell some of the story. I can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com.

In the Milwaukee airport, across from the Dunkin Donuts, my throat wouldn’t let go of the words. Then a tear or two came. 

Damn you, iced coffee. But this wasn’t that. (I think.) 

That morning, after a week back home for me while covering the U.S. Women’s Open, I’d watched my nephew play in the Wisconsin state golf sectionals, and he’d played — see, this is where things start to hit. His round was better than all but one teen — and it was seven strokes better than his season average. His play was simultaneously great and pulled out of you-know-where. 

I called my wife before my flight back.

The kid did it. 

He made it. He’s going to state. I knew he could. 

In the biggest event of his whole life, he …

[Pause.]

[My wife laughed at her sappy man.]

He [expletive] delivered. 

[Another expletive.]

We’ve played countless times together, starting at the par-3s (Hansen Park!), then moving up a bit (Moor Downs!), before eventually hitting the real courses (Oakwood!) and taking lessons (thanks, Coach David!) and grinding to find it on the range (Moorland Road!) — and you begin thinking about all that and how Tuesday, of all places, things clicked underneath his moppy hair. His uncle certainly would’ve choked; he can’t even play for that aforementioned cup of coffee. But not his nephew. No, sir. Where I would’ve fallen short, he kept finding the middle of the hole.   

Who knew a big ole serving of pride could hit harder than caffeine? 

Now, would I still feel this way had he shot 115, or if he shoots 115 next week? Totally. I’d be a monster if I said otherwise, and there’d be benefits in learning from a bigger number. But celebrating a win should be welcomed too. 

But enough of the syrup.

While writing this, I heard about his tee time, and I texted him, adding this:

What you gonna shoot?

Over/under 115?

His response?

Over.  

Let’s see if we can find eight more items for the Weekend 9. 

One takeaway from the week — and for the weeks ahead

2. Happy Framework Agreement Day. 

If you’re unfamiliar, or if you may have forgotten, on June 6, 2023, the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund agreed to terms on a funding deal — or put another way, the backer of LIV Golf, the PGA Tour’s rival, would now also help bankroll the Tour, seemingly meaning the then-year-long separation of men’s pro golf would be over. 

But since then? There’ve been some moves. Later in 2023, star Jon Rahm left the Tour to sign with LIV. A few months later, the Tour agreed to another funding deal, with a group primarily made up of owners of sports teams. This year, LIV’s events are being shown on Fox. There’ve also been some meetings and words. President Donald Trump has gotten involved too. Depending on whom you listen to, the hold-ups are many. How will players come back together? Will LIV continue to play? But official words have been scarce. 

And the sides play on, though folks will all reunite next week at the U.S. Open. Will the deal fall through? Maybe. In public, both sides sound content. Could the agreement become official, though? Perhaps. No one saw the initial announcement coming, and the deal could certainly go down like that. 

This week, ahead of LIV’s event in Virginia, Phil Mickelson was asked what he felt like LIV has accomplished, and what he believed LIV needed to do to get to where he would like it to be. The end of his answer was notable. 

“I think we’re not that far away from having it be what we all want it to be, which is all the best players in the world playing against each other.”

One takeaway from the week — and for next week

3. Heading into next week’s U.S. Open at Oakmont, how do you feel about Rory McIlroy?

How do you feel about him after Friday?

McIlroy’s second round at the Canadian Open was unsightly. He quadruple-bogeyed the par-4 4th hole, following a second shot that sailed over the green. He double-bogeyed the par-3 11th, after his tee shot found water. He bogeyed 8, 10, 13 and 17. On a course others in the field were enjoying, he made just two birdies. In the end, McIlroy signed for a stunning eight-over 78, and he exited with a nine-over total — and only four players were worse. 

Where should the blame lie? All over — for the round, McIlroy was negative in strokes gained in putting, around the green, approach and driving. But the latter will gain the most attention. Driving is his weapon, and he hit just four of 14 fairways. But there’ll also be continued focus on the club itself — ahead of the PGA, much was made of his driver being ruled non-conforming, and this week, he was playing a new one. 

So what now? After his round, he said he was flying back to his home in Florida and would test “quite a few” drivers. Oakmont’s fairways are tight, and its rough is high, so good driving will be a must. 

“You don’t want to shoot high scores like the one I did today,” McIlroy said. “Still I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that that sort of was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn’t.

“Obviously going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee. Obviously for me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now, that isn’t. Yeah, that’s a concern going into next week.”

Whether McIlroy can adjust will be one of the week’s biggest stories.  

Best non-GOLF.com read for your weekend 

4. What am I reading (besides the thoughtful prose of my colleagues)? This article is worth your click. 

Here, the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson wrote about Jack Nicklaus’ thoughts on Charlie Woods, the son of Tiger Woods, after his win at a noteworthy junior event — and after Nicklaus watched his own children play golf. This, from Nicklaus, was good:

“It’s difficult for them. It’s even tougher today. Charlie is a nice little player. He’s got a beautiful little golf swing. Does he want to follow his father? Does he realize what’s going on?”

(Of course, I realize I’m writing about this after writing about a 17-year-old at the start of this article.) 

Best life instruction tip for your weekend 

5. This was good from Robert MacIntyre, when asked earlier this week for one thing he likes about himself:

“Most of the time, I don’t give a … about what’s going on. I don’t really care about what — I really don’t care about other people’s opinions, to be honest with you. If you’re not part of my team, not part of the inner circle, your opinion really doesn’t matter to me.

“I think that’s a massive thing, especially in the sport we play. I think it helps with, when you’re trying to move forward, you’re trying to dissect every part of the game to try and get better. I think, if you take too many opinions in that really aren’t trying to help you, then, yeah, it doesn’t help at all.

“I think something I like is I don’t really care about what others think outside of my team and my friends or my family.”

Best golf instruction tip for your weekend 

6. The video below, from Srixon, is fascinating to me. 

A golf story that may interest only me 

7. This story here, from Heather Bazley of mypanhandle.com, was interesting to me. It revealed how the Walton County (Fla.) Tourist Development Council withdrew their support for a PGA Tour event, and it showed some of the costs involved.  

A video that may make you laugh

8. Comedian Shane Gillis went to this year’s Masters, and his review of the affair, as told on the Flagrant podcast, can be watched by clicking here. The language, though, is not suitable for work. (A hat tip to Golf Digest’s Christopher Powers for finding Gillis’ appearance.) 

A video that brought back memories 

9. The video below was good. The U.S. Ryder Cup team social media team shared a clip of Scottie Scheffler talking to Keegan Bradley — at the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah. There, Scheffler was playing for the Junior Ryder Cup team, while Bradley was playing for the non-juniors. 

I attended that Ryder Cup as a fan. On Friday there, I high-fived Michael Phelps. 

What golf is on TV this weekend?

10. Let’s do 10 items! Here’s a rundown of golf on TV this weekend:

— Saturday 

7:30 a.m.-noon ET: KLM Open third round, Golf Channel 

1 p.m.-3 p.m. ET: RBC Canadian Open third round, Golf Channel 

1 p.m.-6 p.m. ET: LIV Golf Virginia second round, Fox Business Channel 

3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET: RBC Canadian Open third round, CBS 

3 p.m.-5 p.m. ET: ShopRite LPGA Classic second round, Golf Channel 

5 p.m.-7 p.m. ET: BMW Charity Pro-Am third round, Golf Channel 

8 p.m.-10 p.m. ET: American Family Insurance Championship second round, Golf Channel 

— Sunday 

6:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. ET: KLM Open final round, Golf Channel 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. ET: LIV Golf Virginia final round, FS1 

1 p.m.-3 p.m. ET: RBC Canadian Open final round, Golf Channel 

3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET: RBC Canadian Open final round, CBS 

3 p.m.-5 p.m. ET: ShopRite LPGA Classic final round, Golf Channel 

5 p.m.-7 p.m. ET: BMW Charity Pro-Am final round, Golf Channel 

8 p.m.-10 p.m. ET: American Family Insurance Championship final round, Golf Channel 

What you’re emailing me 

11. Let’s do 11 items! This arrived in my inbox recently:

I wonder why there doesn’t seem to be much chatter about Spieth. He is “coming back nicely” from his injury. He has been “regaining his form” over the past few years. Etc, etc, etc. 

Most players seem to change something when they are in multiyear slumps. Jordan hasn’t, as near as I can tell. It seems like it’s past time to change coaches, change caddies, use/change sports physiologist, or equipment. DO SOMETHING! 

The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results. 

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