Just One Of The Awkward Questions Rory Will Get Wednesday...

What do you mean by the Twitter hashtag #ftb? For the boys? *&^% the begrudgers? For Tom Brady? What?

The Telegraph's James Corrigan feels the lad may have compounded his difficulties and revealed a side that might give him an edge, but might also turn off those who prefer a more pettable Rory.

While his followers were wondering what “FTB” stood for, Ronan Keating, the Irish popstar, tweeted back to McIlroy, “loving the hash tag bro. £FTB”.

Keating apparently has a tattoo on the inside of left wrist which reads, “F--- the begrudgers”. McIlroy tweeted back to Keating that Shane Lowry, his fellow Irish pro, “told me you would like it”.

Did McIlroy mean that? If he did – and the fact the tweets were quickly deleted only enforced the suspicion – it surely would hint at his state of mind. Just another question for McIlroy to answer.

The press conference is at 9 am ET and will air live on Golf Channel and perhaps on PGATour.com.

Update on Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 01:46 PM by Geoff

**Rory confirmed his pastor's worst fears in the presser, reports James Corrigan.

For some reason he and Ronan Keating have found it funny to sign off their tweets with “#FTB” in the last few days. Keating has a tattoo on his left wrist reading “F--- The Begrudgers”. McIlroy dismissed it as “just a private joke between friends”. McIlroy has 1.5 million followers on Twitter. Only a tiny minority would begrudge him anything.

Comments

[Amen Coroner]

First To Bed
Fling The Beans
Flick The Boogies
Finish The Beer

[highside]

Featherbrained Teenaged Boy?
Fan of Tiger Beat?
Finish The Back-nine.

[steve elling]

Forget the Besmirchers.

Foolishly Trusted Beaverton.

Finish the Back.

I could go on.

[H401]

This lad lacks the mental agility to not put his foot in his mouth every time he opens it. There's candor, and there's a stunning lack of self-awareness when speaking. Methinks he suffers from a little bit of both, but more of the latter.

Not everyone thinks saucy Irish wit is appropriate for every situation. Sometimes comes off a little jerkish.

[Rod]

Always thought it stood for Feck the B'stards

[joe]

Great job, Media. So Rory still talked honestly after blowing up on ten at Augusta. He talked honestly at many many other times.
Kiss those days goodbye. All you are going to get is coachspeak and cliches. And rightly so. Tiger is already telling him "told you so, the media will tear you down. Don't give them anything"

Golffans, get ready for a bunch of puzzled stories about how Rory changed, is more suspicious and may not be the great guy we all had hoped he was.

Pathetic. Losers.

[No longer Used to be Former Stack & Tilt Convert]

Mark this down as the time Rory circles the wagon, just as Tiger did when some writer, I cannot remember who, printed his jokes that were clearly meant to be off the record. The doorway into Rory's true personality is closing this week.

[Dick Mahoon]

Do you need a licence to tweet?

Some people should never tweet.

Ever.

DM

[ER]

Feed the Beast. If anybody took the time to look that hashtag up on Twitter, they would know this.

[joe]

If geoff Ogilvy had an FTB tattoo and said it was F*** the B**tards you all would swoon that it shows what a gritty competitor he is and how US players are soft and play for top tens.

[KLG]

S&T: It was Charlie Pierce.
http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/199704/tiger-woods-profile
Tiger was 21. Young for most people, but Tiger had been in the media spotlight for quite some time. In any case 21 is old enough to know you do not tell non-family friendly jokes to people you do not know. Especially if one of them has a tape recorder running.

[Digger Dave *is* digsouth]

Water on a duck.

If you think this is any big deal,no matter what it means,then your time has passed.

[Ump]

lol! go rory...

let the haters hate, it's your world..not theirs

[william]

Full Tilt Bolt
Flakily Tweeting Bromides

[RLL]

ER has it right -- it's "Feed The Beast." Or in the words of a U2 song, "you become a monster, so the monster will not break you."

[Snoozing Marshall]

Forever The Bieber?

[gc]

Woods did warn him in that commercial they did together for Nike " you will learn ".

[smithens53]

Fear The Beard. Pulling another TW and growing some sparse facial hair.

[Matt H]

Franks Then Beans.

It's a helpful reminder.

(did you ever see There's Something About Mary?)

[Chuck]

I'm just so freaking happy to have seen the word "begrudgers" in a complete sentence. Perhaps the McIlory story was worth following after all.

[Press Agent]

@H401

What on earth are you talking about?

[Press Agent]

I'm actually more interested in the "complex problem" and "simple solution" that he's talking about.
I think I'm going to start using the word begrudger more often, I quite like it also.

[H401]

PA - Having just re-read what I wrote, I can only ask you in return, "What do you think I'm talking about? On which point was I unclear?"

Simpler: Rory has a habit of shooting his mouth off flippantly. He also displays, again, a stunning lack of self-awareness. Surely he has more media savvy by this point? Or does being young and successful mean that you can whatever you want, to the point of appearing disdainful of anyone who has an opinion on his behavior.

Some view that as down-home Irish sauce, which I never understood, but to more buttoned-down types, he comes off as a lippy kid who thinks being cute is the solution to everything. And it's getting old.

Better?

[elf]

Is Rory po'd at the media coverage of this? yeah probably. Is he going to admit to it? nope, no chance. Instead he did the aw shucks Rory routine he does really well. Shrug, I'd do it to if I were him, nothing to be gained by saying you are pissed.

@KLG and seriously, and people wonder why Tiger is so guarded, he was younger than Rory is now, and just out of college. He acted like a 21yo and got raked for it.

[KLG]

Elf, seriously, a 21-year-old is way past old enough to know better than to tell a locker room joke to someone he doesn't know. Or should be.