With Woods out, McIlroy in spotlight

british open

Associated Press

There’s really nothing new at the oldest championship in golf.

The buzz at the British Open is mainly about one player, the obvious choice among bookmakers, who has become such a fascinating figure that it’s almost as though the rest of the field at Royal St. George’s is being ignored.

For years, that was Tiger Woods.

Now it’s Rory McIlroy, the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland, the face of golf’s next generation.

The last meaningful shot McIlroy hit was a tap-in for par on the 18th green to complete an astounding performance at Congressional, where he shattered U.S. Open records en route to a winning score of 16-under 268.

Now, his every move his charted.

McIlroy twice went to Wimbledon, once sitting in the Royal Box, also meeting with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. He went to Germany for a heavyweight championship fight. Video of McIlroy went viral, showing him as a wee lad appearing on TV shows as he hit plastic golf balls into a washing machine and talked about his dream of playing golf for a living. Sound familiar?

There was a television interview with Piers Morgan on CNN. There was a letter of congratulations from Prime Minister David Cameron.

And there is no sign of Woods.

The 14-time major champion had not been much of a factor even when he was playing, except for that 31 on the front nine at the Masters that briefly put his name atop the leaderboard. Now he’s not playing at all. Woods no longer wears a protective boot for his left Achilles, but he’s not wearing golf spikes, either.

The British Open, which starts Thursday at Royal St. George’s on the southeastern coast of England, will be the fourth major that Woods has missed since 2008. There was a time when Woods’ absence would siphon the excitement from a major.

Times have changed.

The top four players in the world ranking are European, starting with Luke Donald and Lee Westwood of England, followed by PGA champion Martin Kaymer of Germany and McIlroy.

“With Donald and Westwood at the head, with Kaymer third and McIlroy doing what he did, the European story is extremely strong,” Royal & Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson said. “That’s what has the crowd buzzing. Of course, we wish Tiger was here. But there is plenty of interest over here at the moment. A lot of that has been mitigated by McIlroy.”

McIlroy decided not to play in the three weeks between the U.S. Open and the British Open, wanting instead to take care of as many corporate and media obligations as possible so that when he does return, it will be all about his golf.

That’s not likely to happen with his next tournament a major, in Britain no less, and suddenly under the burden of expectations. A victory would make him only the seventh player to win the U.S. Open and British Open in the same season, joining Woods, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones.

“It’s going to be very hard for Rory when he turns up to be concentrating on The Open Championship,” said Graeme McDowell, speaking from the experience of his U.S. Open title last summer. “He’ll still be living three or four weeks ago at Congressional. At the same time, being at home, he’s had two weeks to get the celebrating out of the system.”

McIlroy has shown wisdom and maturity beyond his 22 years, and now comes another test. He did remarkably well to forget about that 80 he shot in the second round at St. Andrews last year, and the more nefarious 80 he had in the final round at Augusta National when he squandered a four-shot lead. Now, he wants to follow the same script even in victory.

“The time to reflect will be at the end of the season and not halfway through it,” McIlroy wrote on his blog. “So I won’t be looking over my shoulder any more, just straight ahead and concentrating on getting more wins in the second half of the year. It is very important that I put everything that’s happened behind me now.”