Sunday, June 19, 2011

McIlroy Chases History and Redemption

McIlroy Chases History and Redemption



Rory McIlroy took an eight shot lead into the final day at the U.S. Open
At least at the start, none of that seemed to be daunting McIlroy. He drilled his first drive down the middle of the fairway with a 3-wood, dropped his approach perfectly underneath the hole and sank the 10-foot putt for birdie. The serenades of “Let’s Go, Rory,” had already begun from his adoring gallery. Three holes later, he stuck another perfect approach shot and sank a short putt for another birdie at No. 4.
With that, McIlroy sat at 16 under par, a mesmerizing score on its own that rewrote the Open record book with every birdie. He was 10 shots ahead of Lee Westwood of England and Y.E. Yang of South Korea.
Going into the round, they all knew the Open is McIlroy’s to win or lose. If McIlroy, who is from Northern Ireland, plays the way he has the first three days of the championship, there is no one who can catch him. The course remains somewhat soft after the heavy rains that pummeled the area early Saturday morning, but the way the course is set up, with difficult hole positions cut close to the edges and fronts of greens, it will be difficult for anyone to shoot a spectacularly low score.
If McIlroy shoots even-par 71, which would be his worst round of the week by three strokes, then Yang would have to shoot 62 to beat him or 63 to tie him.
Still, strange things have happened to big leads. Greg Norman’s 6-stroke lead over Nick Faldo going into the final round in the 1996 Masters was gone by the time he reached the 11th tee. Arnold Palmer had the distinction of making up seven strokes in the final round to win the 1960 U.S. Open, and of losing a seven-stroke lead with nine to play to Billy Casper at the 1966 Open. 
McIlroy has more than his Masters meltdown to remember: he followed up his opening-round 63 at last year’s British Open Championship with an 80, but he came back to finish tied for third.
The specter of the Masters has been brought up constantly this week, but it has not seemed to haunt McIlroy.  He has been matter-of-fact when he addresses it, and has focused on the lessons learned from the collapse. Chief among them is that he was too tentative in that round, when he had a four-shot lead, something he said he will not be on Sunday. He also made some poor choices down the stretch, something and he was faced with those same decisions when he was playing with a big lead in Saturday’s third round.
When he drove his ball into the trees at the third hole, he and his caddie were evaluating whether to hit a risky, cut 5-iron under a branch because it was his only route to the green. Instead, McIlroy opted to pitch safely out to the fairway and hit a 90-yard wedge into the green. He stuck it 3 feet from the hole, made the putt for par, and saved par again from the bunker at No. 4, proving that pars are still good in the Open.
"At Augusta, it was all a little bit new to me, going into the final round with the lead," McIlroy said Saturday. " I didn’t know whether to be defensive, aggressive, go for it, not go for it, but now I know what I need to do, which is a great thing to have.  I have a clear mind going out there tomorrow, and I just need to stick to my game plan."More.

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