Rory McIlroy: He Is Just Being Honest About Tiger

It’s always funny how reporters tend to ask Rory McIlroy about Tiger Woods when they do not have anything else to write about.

Back in the old days, it used to be, that a certain group of golf reporters—well, mostly the big Tiger Tea Party of US golf reporters—always wanted other players to comment on how fantastic Tiger's golf game was. These days, those reporters still want other players to comment on Woods—only thing is, now, they don’t want to hear the truth.

That’s why McIlroy represents a problem. When asked—and he is asked a lot about Tiger's game—he gives an honest answer, and that answer is not harsh, not impolite or in any way insulting towards the former No. 1 in the world. It’s simply just the truth.

During the Accenture Match Play—the tournament where Woods was eliminated by Thomas Bjorn, a No. 62 on the world rankings at that time—the Irish was asked about the game of both Woods and Phil Mickelson, and replied: "I don’t think Tiger and Phil have got any...Well.... I don’t think Phil has got any worse."

Later, he was criticized for stating on golf.com: "I wasn't playing against Tiger Woods when he had that aura. I was watching on TV! I remember getting nervous when I first met him. I was 15. There was a presence about him...But Tiger is not playing as well as he was even a couple of years ago, never mind going back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when he was at his best. I'm not sure we are going to see him dominate again the way he did. He never seemed like he would make a mistake."

This is refreshingly honest. It’s just not that kind of honesty that some reporters want. They rather want to keep asking other top golfers about the state of Woods’s game and get a robot answer about how great Tiger still is, and that even though he can’t hit a barn these days if he stood in it, he is still the greatest golfer in the world, and he will be back to crash all others. Now, that’s great reporting!

The funny thing is McIlroy is not really saying anything negative about Tiger. He is just giving his opinion. He is saying, as a 15-year-old kid (that’s four years ago?) he watched Tiger on TV, and he got nervous the first time he met him.  Is that bad? Then he says Tiger is not playing as well as he did in the late 90’s-early 20’s, when he was at his best. Is that wrong? Rory says we might never see Tiger as good again. Is that wrong too? Even when Tiger won his last major, he was not as good as in 2000. Finally, McIlroy says, that in the old days, Woods never seemed to make a mistake. Well, he certainly does now, so that’s not a false statement either.

So by stating this rather moderate opinion, McIlroy is compared to Stephen Ames, who supposedly committed a felony back in 2006 when he as the 64th seeded in World Match Play, told reporters that, "anything can happen, especially where he's hitting the ball," referring to Woods's recently somewhat erratic driving.

Ames was crucified for this horrific statement and lost nine and eight to Woods—a detail the press did not forget to revel in. But, anything could happen, and Ames was later proven right! Tiger himself proved that at this year’s World Match Play where he did spray the ball all over the course and lost to Bjorn—the No. 62 seed! So what was so wrong about Ames’s statement then? Nothing! It just did not fall in the good taste of either Woods or IMG, and then, it’s not good press.

Same thing happened back in the mid 2000s when Mickelson paid a compliment to Tiger, saying it was admirable that Woods could play that well with that kind of older equipment. Tiger was playing old school blades and more conservative drivers when other players were leaning towards more modern technology. Back then, mostly Nike and IMG went on the barricades, but Tiger did too by stating in a patronizing way that this whole episode, “was just Phil being Phil.” Well, it was also Tiger being Tiger! The big guy, NIKE and IMG simply did not get it! And therefore, neither did the press.

Now, it’s 2011 and a part of the press still think it’s a crime to, both report the truth or get an honest answer about Tiger Woods from someone in the golf world.

I will give the Tiger Tea Party this much: it would be wrong to write off one of the best golfers in history. But it’s also wrong not to face the fact that he is fighting the toughest battle of his career just now. And unlike previous and much lesser crises Woods has been through, he is fighting this one as Eldrick and not as Tiger.

Like all others, I hope Woods will be back as a factor in golf. In what shape or form that factor will be, I don’t know, and neither does anyone else. So let’s stop lying to ourselves and accept the fact that the truth might not be the one we like to hear or experience. Never the less, it’s the reality; so, let’s stick to that for once.

The reality. I think Tiger sticks to it more than ever. And I think he agrees with young Rory a long part of the way. At least, he needs to if he wants to get back in the game.