"It's just what I think the game really needs right now, someone that's going to set an example that says you can play fast and win at the highest level."

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Nice catch by Jonathan Wall at Yahoo regarding Rory McIlroy, fast play and Jim Nantz, with one caveat:

His dominating performance at the U.S. Open has been talked in the ground, so much so that CBS's Jim Nantz decided to point out something else besides McIlroy's demeanor and swing that kids should take note of.

"One thing I really enjoyed last week while watching Rory McIlroy's incredible performance at the U.S. Open was how fast a player he is," Nantz said. "Here's a guy that's going to be a superstar and a lot of people are going to try and model things after him ... especially kids watching him play. It's just what I think the game really needs right now, someone that's going to set an example that says you can play fast and win at the highest level."

The caveat: Nantz mentioned this as Johnson Wagner was preparing what one could only surmise was the last shot of his life. It was agony and credit to Nantz for showing no hesitation in sharing his thoughts on Rory, without calling out Wagner. That's for us bloggers to do!

"I realized that I’d gone through every one of those stages, but not as a terminal patient...as a golfer."

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Larry David has finally accepted that he'll never be a good golfer, or so he writes in The New Yorker. Warning, it opens with a glitch (Riviera's 175-yard 4th...where are the vaunted New Yorker fact checkers calling Larry to ask if he's really playing the forward tees?).

Think what I could’ve done with all that time. Learned French. Piano. I’d be playing Chopin now if it weren’t for golf. Playing Chopin for Julie Delpy. But instead I wasted my life on this game. It looked so easy. The ball just sits there. Any idiot could do it. But every instinct I had was wrong. You’re supposed to hit the ball down to make it go up. That’s absurd. I want to hit it up to make it go up. When I try to hit down, it’s like I’m splitting a log with an axe. All I do is chop up the course. And then there’s this one: the easier you swing, the farther the ball goes. How can that be? So you hit down to make it go up and swing easy to make it go far?

Wannamoisett Must Go!

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Who cares if charming old Wannamoisett has hosted the Northeast Amateur for almost fifty years and has produced a wide array of champions while defending itself just fine. Looking at the scores and Ryan Herrington's Golf World Monday write about about the record low scoring by Peter Uihlein and the field, it's clearly time for the 50th anniversary next year to usher in a longer slog of a course that can cope with all the gym time these young lads devoting themselves too!
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More Rory...

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...John Strege has several Rory McIlroy anecdotes from the last week of coverage, including his girlfriend's uh, interesting Tweet and this more wholesome item from the Boston Globe.

Will it go to his head? Not likely. One of the better stories post-Open was his ride to Logan Airport in Boston following a charity outing on Monday, as reported by Brian McGrory in the Boston Globe. A canine officer, Barney Murphy, offered McIlroy a police escort to the airport. McIlroy, eschewing the limo, asked whether he could ride in the police car. The Irish-born policeman agreed, then pulled out an iPad, opened his Skype account and contacted his sister, Joan Dodd, in Dublin.

"You'll never guess who I have with me," Murphy said to her. He then turned the iPad's camera on McIlroy, who waved at her. McIlroy ended up speaking to her and her young son, Sean, who said he'd watched the entire Open telecast.

Battle Of The Macs: Rory and John To Have Tennis "Knock-up"

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An unbylined Belfast Telegraph story on the latest thrill from Rory's post-U.S. Open victory tour.

Fun loving US Open champion Rory McIlroy will today celebrate a career high golf ranking of third in the world - by having a "knock-up" with tennis legend John McEnroe at Wimbledon.

McEnroe, still famous for his 'You cannot be serious' Wimbledon rant 30 years ago, threw down the challenge to tennis fan Rory via social network site Twitter.

McIlroy has been on a week long party with friends and pop stars Olly Murs and JLS since his sensational victory at Congressional Golf Club last weekend.

PGA Tour Matchups, Week One Thoughts

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So week one of the PGA Tour Matchups is behind us and as moderator of 35-player group, I must say there were some impressive performances from the group. Yours truly, not included.

I will admit that I forgot about a few of the matchups when scanning the scoreboard, so I'm not sure how that bodes for the concept. But I'm just happy the PGA Tour is doing something to engage fans with something that provides a fun reason to watch. 

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