If you want to listen Rory McIlroy get your back, get a theory about, well, his back.
“Just talking about it is absurd. No.”
That was McIlroy’s blunt response to Palm Beach Post Office when asked about speculation linking a recent spate of back injuries on the PGA Tour to players’ involvement in TGL, the indoor simulator league he helped launch with Tiger Woods.
McIlroy was himself part of that group, withdrawing before the third round of last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational with a limp back that also delayed his arrival at TPC Sawgrass for this week’s Players Championship.
The theory started swirling on social media after another big name, Collin Morikawa. withdrawn from Players after changing back on the second hole of his first round. That one-two punch of two of the biggest names in the game proved irresistible to Internet sleuths and self-appointed medical expertswho expanded on their diagnosis by pointing to recent back and neck problems among other TGL participants, including Sahith Theegala, Billy Horschel and Justin Thomas.
Opinion: TGL adds another layer of competition to already packed schedules. The league also unfolds in a simulator environment, where players hit on a massive screen and the speed of the ball is instantly displayed to the fans. Some have suggested that these digital screens inspire players to leave their shoes.
McIlroy says the numbers don’t back him up.
“My ball speed on Tour is a lot faster than it is at TGL,” he said.
Billy Horschel also dismissed the notion at X when Ryan French of Monday’s Q Info first brought up the idea that TGL is playing a role in the spate of back injuries on Tour.
TGL – which operates out of the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. – features six teams of four players over a 15-game regular season, each team playing five games, followed by playoffs. Matches are played early in the week along with the regular tournament schedule. McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf Club is among those in the running as the playoff begins on March 17.
Faced with uncertainty about his back, McIlroy waited until Thursday morning before deciding to tee it up at TPC Sawgrass. He opened with a 74, then followed that up with a 71 on Friday at finish just inside the cut line.
The back problem on tour is hardly new. Generations of players, from Lee Trevino and Lanny Wadkins to Tiger Woods, have dabbled in them. Pinpointing a single cause is a slippery business. But many observers, including longtime Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, have argued that the modern movement’s emphasis on speed and distance is part of the problem.
