Unsurprisingly, Rory McIlroy is dominating much of the talk in the game of golf right now, with the Northern Irishman set to make his first appearance since the PGA Championship at the Canadian Open.
There was plenty of interest in what Rory McIlroy would say, if he spoke to the media, ahead of the Canadian Open. It is fair to say that the PGA Championship was an extremely underwhelming week for the 36-year-old.
His hopes of winning a sixth major title were all but dashed on day one at Quail Hollow.
Meanwhile, McIlroy was criticised for not speaking to the media at all once the tournament got underway. He had already been fairly prickly in his opening press conference of the week.
The concern following Rory McIlroy’s actions at the PGA Championship
McIlroy has now confirmed that he was frustrated that news of his non-conforming driver was leaked. His driver was far from being the only one which failed the USGA testing ahead of the tournament.
He also suggested that disappointment over his own performance contributed to him snubbing the media. Fans were certainly divided by McIlroy’s comments about not speaking to the press.
And it seems that members of the media are also divided by McIlroy’s actions. Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard spoke about the worries some now have.
“I can say that in conversation with the Tour since this has happened I tend to be in agreement with those in the communications department that have the same concerns that you and I in the media have.
That is when you have a player of Rory McIlroy’s stature it’s not great, but the bigger issue is that it sets a standard for every other player on the PGA Tour,” he said.
“The other 155 at Quail Hollow were looking and saying to themselves if that guy is not going to do it why on earth would I talk to the media after a round. It makes no sense.
“That is disturbing and concerning for all of us in the media. The flip side of that would be that maybe the PGA Tour should have a policy which demands that players have media availability after each round.
I tend to agree with some of the folks at the PGA Tour who I have discussed this with, that that would be counter-productive.
“Because what you could possibly end up with in that situation is even more animosity, which is propped up on the Collin Morikawa issue, going from Bay Hill to the Players Championship and everything that happened there.
“You could end up with the Marshawn Lynch situation where now you have players who will sit in front of the camera and not say anything at all or babble nonsense like he famously did back in the day.
“I don’t think that is productive at all. The system the PGA Tour has had for decades has worked well. We now have one player who seems like he wants to have an issue with this and makes some sort of a statement.”
When Rory McIlroy gave ‘the most memorable interview’ Paul McGinley could remember
Clearly, McIlroy would not have offered great insight had he spoken to the media at the PGA Championship. When you couple it with McIlroy’s comments about struggling for motivation since winning The Masters, it is hard to imagine that it took him too long to completely move on from the week.
But there are definitely times when fans want to hear from the players who have lost out in agonising fashion or had a much more disappointing week than anyone expected.
When Collin Morikawa snubbed the media after losing out at the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year, Paul McGinley pointed to an interview McIlroy himself gave which showed how powerful they can be.
“Probably the most memorable interview that I can remember in professional golf was one from loss, not victory, and it was Rory McIlroy at the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits when he choked up at the end of a poor performance for Europe up there. And that’s raw emotion, and it humanised Rory and it humanised golfers, and even though it’s a hard thing to do, it’s a very, very positive outlook. It’s not all about smiley faces and everybody winning, there’s got to be give and take for everybody,” he said.
It would definitely be better for the game if those reactions were organic and the players were not forced to take part. But there is clearly an awareness that the players do indeed have most of the power when dictating the narrative.
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