‘Something is eating at him’: Paul McGinley suggests Rory McIlroy’s problems are off the golf course
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The Ryder Cup legend has once again expressed his concern for Rory McIlroy’s wellbeing as he continues his fragile relationship with the media at the US Open.
Paul McGinley believes there is more going on with the Rory McIlroy than meets the eye.
The Masters champion’s behavior since finally slipping into the Green Jacket in April has been questioned by fans and pundits alike as he struggles to find form.
He didn’t speak to the press at all at the PGA Championship – later blaming it on being “pissed off” by the news of his non-conforming driver being leaked – and he continued the media blackout for the first two rounds of the US Open too.
The Northern Irishman did, though, speak after the third round. But it was a hostile affair which culminated in McIlroy pointing out that he is perfectly entitled to ignore interview requests should he wish.
“I feel like I’ve earned the right to do whatever I want to do,” he said in a spiky meeting with reporters off the back of 18.
And McGinley doesn’t like what he saw.
“I didn’t enjoy them. I don’t like to see that. I think Rory’s better than that. Either not talking to the media or giving a press conference like that doesn’t serve him fairly or rightly for the person that he is,” he said on Golf Channel’s Live From show at Oakmont.
“He looks fed up to me. He looks like he’s had enough of everything. Whether it was the emotional release of everything that’s gone on in his career, I don’t know. But he’s not himself, this is not normal.
“When he does that, because people look up to him. A [press] conference like that with his body language and short language doesn’t serve him right.
“I don’t like to see it. I’m disappointed for Rory that it’s come to that.”
McGinley had expressed similar concerns after McIlroy’s press conference ahead of the 125th US Open, saying it is very “un-Rory-like”. But this time the former Ryder Cup captain ventured that there might be something else going on.
“Something is eating at him. He hasn’t let us know what it is, but there’s something not right.”
McIlroy, who said he wants “a round in under four and a half hours and [to] get out of here” on Sunday, will tee up alongside Andrew Novak on the final day.
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Paul McGinley has expressed his concern for Rory McIlroy after a more worrying behavior at the US Open.
