The Links: Rory McIlroy faces good friend at Match Play Championship
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| Rory McIlroy faces friend in first round. (Getty Images) |
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The
McIlroy was groomed to be a star as a toddler. Lowry didn't even start playing golf until he was 12, and didn't realize he was any good until his late teens.
One of them is comfortable in the spotlight. The other feels at home with the boys in the pub.
McIlroy looks like an athlete. Lowry has a body built by Guinness.
(AP)
PGA Tour
Good read on whether Rory McIlroy can live up to what Tiger Woods did at that age. I loved this line: "... then Woods found that extra hidden away gear of greatness few ever locate in any sport." (GolfDigest)
I say yes to this question. What say you? (Yahoo)
Johnny Miller on why golfers in his day were so much better at playing Riviera ... uhhh. (Geoff Shackelford)
Nasty weather expected for the first few days of the Match Play Championship. (Golf Channel)
The most provocative photos in golf. The Tom Kite photo!! (GolfDigest)
David Feherty says John Daly set a world record for most hookers in a hotel room at one time. (Golf.com)
Oh, and your Northern Trust Open winner, John Merrick, is in one of those photos as well. (GolfDigest)
Interesting note here on why the Match Play Championship is so pivotal to getting in the Masters. (Golf Channel)
Bubba Watson, not a fan of match play. (Golf.com)
Nick Faldo has concerns about Tiger Woods hitting the shots that he needs to hit. (Reuters)
Tiger Woods thinks PEDs are a problem in all sports. (Golf Channel)
Rory McIlroy doesn't think golf has a PED problem. (ESPN)
Tiger Woods on this week: "The only reason I enter events is to win. It's not to make the cut or finish top 10 or even second. It's to win the event." (Golf Channel)
Bill O'Reilly and Charles Krauthammer argue over the Tiger Woods-Barack Obama golf outing. (Geoff Shackelford)
Steve Stricker says he feels good after his long layoff. (Golf Channel)
Crazy note here: At least one No. 1 seed has lost in the first round of the Match Play Championship in each of the last seven years. (GolfWeek)
Win McMurry on how to pick the Match Play champ. (Golf Channel)
Why bad weather could give Luke Donald an advantage. (Reuters)
International
Rory McIlroy is playing with a different Nike putter and a heavier driver than he played with in Abu Dhabi. (BBC)
Wait a second....
McIlroy on the Match Play Championship: "The difference in level between number one and 64 in the world isn't big at all. Compare that to something like tennis, where it's much more different." (BBC)
Nick Faldo and Rory McIlroy mini-kerfuffle. (Guardian)
Equipment/Travel
Ian Poulter's new putter cover features the azaleas from Augusta. (GolfDigest)
Geoff Shackelford is right. The chatter on what to do with the anchored putter ban is pretty amazing. (Geoff Shackelford)
Ian Poulter is correct here. The fallout if the PGA goes on its own will be bad. (BBC)
Belly-putter sales are down. Well, I would imagine so. (GolfWeek)
On TV
12-6 p.m. ET on Golf Channel -- Match Play Championship
Social
The new "born for this" video. Mahan!
Feherty with a good Bill Clinton impression here.
Villanova team does the Harlem Shake.
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