About Rory McIlroy, leaked stories and late deadlines

So Rory Mcllroy insists he will approach interviews as carefully as he approaches his golf shots, meaning perhaps telling us nothing.  

Which is exactly what he did after each of his four rounds at last month’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, and after the final round of the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst. 

McIlroy was perturbed about a media leak from a Sirius XM reporter stating that at the PGA, Rory had a driver that, during pre-tournament testing, was declared non-conforming.

Again, the question arises, what, if anything, a competitor is obligated to say after play.

A few years ago, I was at a soccer match in England, and with deadlines approaching, I said to a British writer, “It is so late you are going to have a tough time getting any quotes in about the match.” 

He virtually sneered at me, “My paper pays me for what I say, not what the players say. Most of them don’t understand the game anyway.”

The athletes often make the same point about the journalists and particularly about fans. But wisecracks aside, in sports, all sides benefit from the questions asked and the answers given.

There was a time when the whole idea of sports writing was to tell us what happened. Now more than ever, because of television—replay after replay—know what has happened.

What we wish to know is how and why.  

And every word spoken or written about a sports star or a game, positive or negative, keeps us attentive and keeps ticket sales booming.  

Rory always was one of the best. Along with Jordan Spieth, he could fill a notebook or a recording disk almost without taking a deep breath. And all that exposure did nothing to hurt anyone’s commercial appeal.

Maybe the ballplayers from past decades were the strong, silent type, responding to a question with a grunt or a snort. The kids today grew up watching television. They know how to deal with a microphone as well as they do a five iron, a bat, a basketball, or a hockey puck.

And yet there always is going to be unhappiness, misunderstandings, or misconceptions. People like good news. Not all the news is good, but what the media must do is tell the story, good news or bad news.

Collin Morikawa is a two-time major golf champion. He grew up in the Los Angeles area, hardly isolated, and graduated from Cal. All that said, he refused to do an interview after blowing a three-stroke lead with five holes to play at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.

“I don’t owe anyone anything,” he said a week later at the Players Championship. “No offense to you guys, but for mec in the moment, I didn’t want to be around anyone.”

Agreed. The response is understandable but, in a way, unacceptable. The crowds these golfers draw, the paychecks these golfers earn are both a direct result of the exposure in the media. 

The way one handles the difficulty and disgust is no less important than in the method he or she handles success.  

There is no rule that a PGA tour golfer must speak after a round. Doing an interview is voluntary.  And also, in the scheme of things, necessary.

The great Ben Hogan, noting writers rarely stepped on the course to watch, once said, “If we didn’t come in to talk to you guys, nobody would know what was going on.”

What’s going on right now is Rory McIlroy becoming wary of those who tell his story and the story of the game he plays.