House Un-American Activities Committee May Be Reconvened To Study Vagaries Of Match Play

I can't wait to read the "vagaries" of match play excuses for the latest example of American inferiority at the WGC (well, Phil and Tiger losing before the weekend...here here for Sean, Justin and Stewart!). So far  the coverage has focused on Rory McIlroy and his match-up with Geoff Ogilvy Saturday morning.

Lawrence Donegan shares this observation from Ernie Els:

"You are probably looking at the next world No1," said Els when asked to assess McIlroy. He should know what is required to climb the summit, having spent a lifetime in pursuit of the game's ultimate accolade.

And this on the American performance:

Even the American audience, dazed that Woods is no longer among them, was forced to take notice of McIlroy's achievement and it says something of his impact on this side of the Atlantic that he featured prominently during American television coverage of yesterday's play.

American attention was tweaked, too, by the efforts of a quartet of English players on the other side of the draw. "British No-Names Take Course By Storm" declared the morning edition of the local newspaper in Tucson. It was not exactly complimentary, and by the close of play last night it was not entirely accurate.

Of the four, Ross Fisher, who defeated Jim Furyk 4&3, and Paul Casey, who edged out Peter Hanson by a margin of 3&2, progressed into today's quarter- finals, while Ian Poulter went down to Sean O'Hair and Oliver Wilson finally fell to Justin Leonard at the first extra hole. Not so much a British storm, more of a stiff English breeze.

Handling Rory: “There’s absolutely no point in him taking out his PGA Tour card"

Brian Keogh looks at the handling of Rory McIlroy by agent Chubby Chandler and it's a distinctly un-American way of handling a career, reason #451 that Americans are falling behind the rest of the world.

Determined to treat his new talent with kid gloves, the Englishman has decided that there will be no sponsorship overkill just yet and no move to the PGA Tour either as they eye the golf explosion in Asia and the global attraction of a world schedule that combines the best of the European Tour’s Race to Dubai with the majors and World Golf Championships.

“There’s absolutely no point in him taking out his PGA Tour card,” Chandler said before the start of yesterday’s third round. “Suddenly he has got to play 15 tournaments. Suddenly they start dictating to you.

“Rory’s going to be young for a while yet and he’s going to want to go home and have a bit of time out with his pals. The money’s not an issue. I said to him last night. ‘For me with you there’s a totally different set of rules than there is with anybody else because we’ve got time.’

“I’ve got a couple of deals in the pipeline but we’ve just sort of said ‘yeah we’re interested but we’re all right’ because he doesn’t need more company days, he doesn’t need more commitments, he just wants to play golf.”

"What courage! What insight!"

John Huggan on Rory McIlroy's impact, with this jab at what's left of the American golf media:

Interestingly – and tellingly – the flurry of banner and admittedly over-the-top headlines that duly followed O'Meara's remarks set off something of a backlash across the Atlantic. Perhaps feeling a little touchy over the almost complete and continuing lack of excitement created by homegrown players on their own tour, a few American journalists felt able to pooh-pooh any comparison with the incomparable Woods. What courage! What insight! If only some of them had actually seen the young Irishman play even once.

"Depending on who you listen to, McIlroy is a better player at his age (19) than Tiger Woods, has no limits on his potential, and can start planning his hall of fame speech."

Uh oh, and I didn't write that. Worse, it's Jim McCabe (I think he might have some Irish blood) who dared to question the Rory hype and compares Tiger's record at the same age. Advantage Tiger.

Rory Only One Modest About Rory

Since some of you across the Atlantic get a little worked up because I've dared to question the British press hype machine (and Lord knows, I've never picked on the American version), I will ignore the "boy wonder" reference or the 10-majors-before-30 wager you can pick up, or his agent's breathless email/press release and leave it to Rory McIlroy for some perspective on Rory McIlroy's accomplishments, courtesy of Karl McGinty:

"I mean, I've just won my first event and it's great, but I have still got a long way to go," added Rory, who's just as level-headed in dealing with comparisons between himself and Woods, a player he's idolised since age six.

"I don't think anyone can be compared to Tiger," he said. "I'll never be able to do what he has done for golf. Hopefully, one day, I'll be able to win Majors -- what's he done, 14 of them? Well, I just hope to keep getting better and better and trying to win golf tournaments. If I can do that, I'll be happy.

Now that's impressive!