Rory McIlroy labelled ‘disrespectful’ as rival pushed and club thrown | Golf | Sport
McIlroy’s Boston Common fell short of reaching the TGL final following a 9-5 defeat to non-playing captain Woods’ Jupiter Links GC, which featured Tom Kim, Max Homa and Akshay Bhatia. Away from the intense rivalry of a major or PGA Tour tournament, the players adopt a more relaxed attitude when playing in Tomorrow’s Golf League. This was perfectly illustrated when McIlroy declined to concede a putt before light-heartedly nudging Kim and flinging the South Korean’s putter aside. Kim threw his arms out in faux dismay while one of the commentators remarked: “That’s borderline disrespectful.”
Kim kept his composure to sink the putt before celebrating and subsequently bantering with McIlroy. Jupiter Links advanced to the final and will meet Los Angeles Golf Club, who progressed to the championship match by overcoming reigning TGL champions Atlanta Drive 6-4.
Their success owed much to Tommy Fleetwood’s tactical deployment of the Hammer, a device that doubles the hole’s value, on the 14th, not to mention multiple pressure putts from Justin Rose.
There are three tournaments between now and the Masters: the Valspar Championship, which starts on Thursday, before a pair of events in Texas. He intends to assess his fitness before deciding whether to compete again before heading to Augusta, where he completed the career Grand Slam last year.
Speaking after finishing tied 46th at The Players having only just made the cut, the world No. 2 said: “I’ll see how my body feels. We’ll see how I feel in practice and at home and if I get itchy feet at home, maybe add an event at some point.
“I feel like it was important to make the weekend here and play an extra couple of days. I’m happy I got through four days and my body feels good.
“I feel like my game sort of progressively got a little bit better as the week went on, even though the scores probably didn’t reflect it over the weekend. But yeah, really just see how the next week goes, see how once I get back to actually a full practice schedule and in the gym and stuff like that, see how my body reacts to that, and then I’ll see.”
