Rory Mcilroy’s anger was understandable. But also detective

Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla – after all, golf is not a game of birds and bogeys. It is a game of what happens to you, and how you treat it.

“I don’t think there is a way to forget your mistakes,” Rory Mcilroy said Friday ChampionshipOn the same day he fired a 68 to push himself into the quarrel by heading at the weekend. “I think I just try to visualize and focus on what you I want to do instead of thinking about what you don’t want to do or what you’ve done before. “

“If you can make that thought only a little more powerful than the previous one, then this is the secret.”

The 30 seconds that followed the 18th Tee of Rory Mcilroy holes in his Tuesday afternoon practice were so unusual, so out of character that it was seductive to dismiss them all for most of the player championship week. But while the conversation around the phone-capture is spread from a moment of blind rage in a much larger reflection of Mcilroy’s character, it has become clear that Mcilroy’s actions were not accidental. They were a window in one of the most enigmatic golf figures – and what unfolds has determined his week so far in the largest PGA Tour event.

What happened? Among the fans watching Mcilroy in the 18th were a pair of University of Texas players. Once Mcilroy was hit with a car in the left water of the road, one of the longrns- 20-year-old young Luke Potter – Heckled Mcilroy with a reference for the 2011 masters. Mcilroy might have ignored excavations, but he did not. He faced Potter and his teammate, grabbed the team’s friend’s phone and left with him. Potter was taken out of the tournament. (The phone finally returned.)

Whatever the Potter was saying exactly, the spirit of his comment was not just unknown, it was cruel. Mcilroy’s melting In the last nine holes of the 2011 masters remains one of the most painful moments of his professional career, and the 14 years of tribulation that have followed him in Augusta National have only strengthened the depth of his initial pain. At this point, building a schedule every year in the hope of reaching augusta in Augusta should feel Rory a little How to wear a wagyu suit in front of a hungry grizzly. Yes, the rope line in a golf tournament does strange things to people, but it is reasonable for Mcilroy to wait that he will not face broses regularly for the most tortured moments of his life in seconds after dunking a strong blow. Anyone who argues otherwise must ask himself diligently if the standard for human determination has fallen low enough to blame Mcilroy for “wait” better treatment.

However, in the same spirit, professional sports can be cruel. Contemptuous behavior occurs, whether athletes MUST Find yourself to the conclusion of taking it or not. For better or for worse, hatred and fine are part of the concert for those who paid millions to play golf. And for better or for worse, those who try to avoid or challenge are usually subjected to them more. Bryson Dechambeau was ruthlessly tortured for his calf with Brooks Koepka at the Memorial Tournament in 2021, and when fans learned that he would guide the safety to remove those who shouted at him, heckling ballooned in a long lamp.

Mcilroy knows that, that’s why he did his best Avoid commenting on debut When asked about this Thursday afternoon in the Sawgrass. Even for a player with a tangible story with the press, falling the flames of an embarrassing story-everything-root was a visible thing.

“No,” he said, when a press member asked if the subject was a hive to speak.

Why?

“Because I don’t want you (ask for it).”

After all, these efforts were fruitless. When the violation video appeared online, Rory was filled on social media. On the property in the Sawgrass, the fans also pleaded for the “soft” reaction of Mcilroy. He will almost certainly undergo a fan of fans eager to remember him for catching the phone, as one in the 18th box of Friday morning did.

“Get my phone, Rory !!”

The human brain is extremely resilient. People live through unimaginable trauma and unbreakable heart attack every day, and yet the world is also filled with stories of those who have achieved fabulous success regardless – and, in some cases, because of – These circumstances.

Mcilroy is an example of both. He is with any objective measure one of the most talented and successful players ever, and yet the same gifts have given him unusual doses of heart pain, as in the 2011, open US 2024 masters or any of the weeks that destroy the spirit in the middle that have filled a great dry for a long decade.

While the extension of Mcilroy’s trauma can be limited to a silly game that has also made it brilliantly rich, the existence of its trauma is nevertheless very true. Fourteen years later, no one would blame Rory if the merging of his masters still brought strong feelings of embarrassment and regret. His opening in the US last summer is no different.

These emotions do not make it unusual, or weak – they do it human. Like the following mechanisms, he relied on those moments of personal disaster were similarly (and involuntarily) human. If Mcilroy would like to push these feelings away from the public point of view, in a place where someone is routinely undergoing public criticism may not have to count with them often, would not serve as proof of weakness or immaturity. It would only serve as evidence that he has a pulse.

However, unfortunately, the human brain has a way to make sure we cannot erase these feelings. The more time we spend trying to suppress the emotions we like the least, the more prominent they tend to become. Freud called it ”repetition” – or our unconscious tendency to repeat painful behaviors and situations to gain skill over them.

This is where Tuesday’s incident proves the discovery. Mcilroy faced a careless insult that cut him deeply and reacted in a way to which he probably regrets. That he experienced an outbreak of blind rage in a round of practice does not make it a bad person. But that he felt enabled to respond aggressively to such an ancient story suggests that he may not feel ancient for him.

Of course, only Mcilroy can respond to his emotions and lively experiences – and this is an area in which he has been extremely sincere over the years. If he does not want to talk about his heart strokes, this is his right.

However, it will not be difficult to learn the result of Mcilroy’s efforts to fix those wounds. We will see it in the course. Can you see the purpose and hit it, even with implicit knowledge of your shortcomings, mistakes and failures? that It is the essential issue of golf – and, in many ways, of life.

Traveling to the final destination cannot be measured in 30 seconds, 30 days or 30 years. The challenge and the work of a life. Even for Rory Mcilroy.

What happened is the story. Now comes the interesting part.

You can reach the author in James.colgan@golf.com.