Writers’ roundtable: What to make of Rory McIlroy’s mistakes in debut | Golf Today | Golf Channel

Rex Hoggard and Ryan Lavner join Golf today to discuss Rory McIlroy’s performance at the Dubai Invitational, explaining why the 34-year-old shouldn’t be too concerned with the mistakes he made in his 2024 debut. #GolfChannel #GolfToday #RoryMcIlroy
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Writers’ roundtable: What to make of Rory McIlroy’s mistakes in debut | Golf Today | Golf Channel
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we’re back in go today a few months ago
in Rome with the rider cup the pairing
of Tommy Fleetwood and Roy mro proved
pretty much unbeatable they were dub
Fleetwood Mack played both forsome
sessions came away with two points for
Europe but this weekend they went from
being Partners to opponents sure did
duai Invitational inaugural event final
hole Rory with a one shot lead on
18 Snipes this one left trying to play a
draw and that one got wet yeah pass the
fans over that cart path into the water
Shake of the head door open for the
Englishman who led the field and strok
gained approach this week in
Dubai with shots like this he’d also
birdied
17 gorgeous shot he has a home in Dubai
as Lory mroy did for a time this not a
safe
par asking a little bit too much there
you know these players shaking off the
rest of the off season but here’s an
opportunity Tommy Fleetwood for the
[Music]
win how about it Fleetwood mat put on a
show it was Tommy Fleetwood outd dueling
one of his best friends in the game a on
shot victory for Tommy as we continue
our round table and bring back Rex
hogard and Ryan lavner Rex what do you
think you know a positive week for Rory
Ma even in defeat or are you shaking
your head at that three- put at 14 and
that wobble on
18 probably the three putt on 14 is the
one that gets me more because he was
staring at that eight iron like he could
not have hit it any better and you just
expect a player of Roy maor’s caliber to
be able to make that birdie Putt and to
go on a run end up closing out the
tournament so that one probably
surprises me a little bit more than the
drive on 18 simply because he had been
struggling with his driver certainly all
day long on Sunday I’m encouraged I
think brory was encouraged when you
listen to his comments after that round
simply because he admitted it himself
you’re going to have sort of these
mental lapses when you show up for the
first event of the year you’re going to
have to knock off some Rust certainly
there’s plenty of rust for Rory to knock
off but all of it is correctable I think
in his mind when he looks at the
mistakes he made the three putt two
water balls on Sunday all of those
things happened and yet he still had a
really good chance at Victory on the
other side of this I think Tommy
Fleetwood probably takes a lot from this
particular Victory only because of the
caliber of field I think coming off the
Ryder Cup as a in point point out he had
to be very encouraged but when you get a
victory against that level of player
that early in the year I think it could
actually free Tommy up for the rest at
least to the next couple of months Ryan
this didn’t seem like a very serious
week for a lot of those guys we had John
hugan on the show from Dubai last week
he said he was amazed how many players
had come up to him and said it was a a
very easy start to the year for them
it’s kind of an elevated member guest in
some ways but in that context does the
the victory you think give Fleetwood
more confidence than the loss would hurt
melroy well I think that’s definitely
fair to say I mean you just look at the
way that that Rory handled himself on
the 18th old the Masters this this was
not I know he’s very close to Tommy
Fleetwood but had this been a tournament
of higher stature he would not have been
fist bumping his opponent he would not
have been hugging his opponent on the
green he would not have been walking off
the the 18th green with his arm slung
over his shoulder as he did with Tommy
Fleetwood on Sunday when you look at
either the the quad earlier in the week
or or the the t-shot uh in the water
with an iron or the three putt from two
feet or then the water ball on 18 this
was obviously a warm-up event for Rory
and yet I do think it was actually
somewhat meaningful for Tommy Fleetwood
now a seventh win on the DP World Tour
but but Tommy food did not win on the
PGA tour last year despite being fifth
on the PJ tour in Strokes G total he was
one of the best players on the PGA tour
I remember talking to him at East Lake
in late August at the end of The fedus
Cup playoffs I said how do you actually
measure a successful season when you
don’t have a victory to show for it and
he was so process oriented saying he’s
just trying to put the pieces in place
and then see where that adds up it added
up at least in the second start of 2024
with a victory on the de World Tour
against the world number two and I think
that’s actually pretty meaningful for
him Rex there was a sideshow going on in
Dubai around Ken wyan who’s a general
manager of Michael Jordan’s Club down in
Florida who got a sponsor invite he
finished 72 bres behind Tommy Fleetwood
and you know he’s a buddy of the guy who
runs a tournament he’s a sponsor’s
invite who cares but on the actual
subject of sponsors invites these days
where starts seem to be harder and
harder to come by particularly in Elite
vents I I’m curious where you think the
tour needs to go with this because three
of the four sponsors invites for the
signature event at Pebble Beach in a few
weeks have been decided two of them went
to web Simpson Peter Malnati ultimately
deserving guys but they’re both both
policy board members as well do you
think the tour is going to face an issue
where they need more transparency
exactly around what the guidelines are
particularly when there are fewer and
fewer spots in more and more lucrative
tournaments when I saw that in the notes
coming up to tonight’s show I I had to
kind of go back to last week’s show and
I think you and I had the conversation
about the rookies who hope to get into
the Sony Open suddenly they weren’t in
the field they had been in the past and
that has everything to do with the new
signature event reality on the PGA tour
the PGA Tour said it in a memo last
November that they should expect 10%
fewer Starts Now most players aren’t
going to wrap their mind around that
very quickly but for most of those
players that means you’re not going to
play the Sony Open you’re probably not
going to even play the American Express
so it is going to hit these players
harder and two your point that’s where
these sponsor exemptions come into play
now I’ll kind of take the other side of
this and when you look at the way
sponsor exemptions have been handed out
in the past versus now now that we have
designated events now Signature Events
at least into those Signature Events the
PGA Tour has kind of gone out of the way
to give it as much clarity as possible I
was just looking this morning at that
Clarity for the Arnold Palmer
Invitational and they get four spots
each one of them are assigned to a PGA
Tour member in a specific category and
then a fifth spot to the tournament host
which actually goes to a member of the
Palmer Cup teams so I I think if you
have that kind of clarity most players
are going to be fine with it to your
point though I think where this gets a
little sideways and I looked this up
last year because I had a player
actually asked me about it and Charlie
Hoffman was the example that I was given
Charlie Hoffman was on the policy board
last year and if you look at the
category he was playing out of a limited
category he played 30 events last year
on the PGA tour every other player in
that category on average only got 24
starts and a lot of that has to do with
Charlie Hoffman got seven sponsor
exemptions to play on the PGA tour last
year that stems directly from the idea
that he was on the policy board that is
going to be a problem that the tour is
going to have to address finishing 72
shots behind the winner sounds like a
typical weekend for me at the club Rex
and lab thank you so much for your time
enjoy your
Monday you
too