Had it not been for a nightmare second round, Rory McIlroy would have been well in contention to win the British Open at St Andrews this weekend.
After setting the pace with a sensational 63 on Thursday, the Northern Irishman struggled to a round of 80 the following day and in the end this has cost him a place at the top of the leader board.
The youngster ended up 8 shots behind eventual winner Louis Oosthuizen, so even a round of 70 on the Friday – which would have still been his worst of the week – could have seen the ladbrokes golf betting backing him to be holding the Claret Jug come today.
As it was he had to settle for being tied in 3rd position with Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey.
Speaking afterwards, McIlroy was remaining positive about his week and vowed not to let his hellish round on Friday get him down too much despite criticism from some sports betting pundits.
He said: “It’s not going to give me nightmares. I’m sure I’ll wake up in the morning and just look at the fact I was 16 under for three rounds of golf around St Andrews in the Open, and had just one bad round – its fine.”
The 21-year-old admits that he does regret losing his focus somewhat during his round of 80. He said that if he had “stuck in a little bit more, it could have been a different story.”
When it comes down to it, McIlroy admits that he didn’t deal with the windy conditions very well on Friday and this was his downfall. He will learn from this though and there is no doubt that he will be a British Open champion one day.
Filed under: Golf Tagged: | Rory McIlroy
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