PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — It’s official: Rory McIlroy is a mess.
At the very tournament he won last year and elevated to No. 1 in the world, McIlroy inexplicably quit in the middle of his round on Friday and withdrew from the Honda Classic while playing the 18th hole at PGA National, his ninth hole of a second round that had spun miserably out of control.
McIlroy, who shot an even-par 70 in Thursday’s opening round, was 7-over par through his first eight holes on Friday and, after he hit his second shot into the water on the 18th hole, he quit, walking off the course with his caddie and coach without explanation.
When reporters caught up to him in the parking lot on his way off the grounds, McIlroy said, “There’s really not much I can say, guys. I’m not in a good place mentally, you know?’’
Asked if there was anything physically wrong with him, McIlroy said, “No.’’
Asked if he’s “stuck’’ with his swing, McIlroy said, “Yeah, I really don’t know what’s going on.’’
Curiously, less than an hour after he left the grounds having made the above comments, McIlroy sent out a statement that contradicted what he said earlier, blaming his problems on wisdom tooth pain that “affected’’ his concentration.
“I sincerely apologize to the Honda Classic and PGA Tour for my sudden withdrawal,’’ McIlroy said in the prepared statement. “I have been suffering from a sore wisdom tooth, which is due to come out in the near future. It began bothering me again (Thursday) night, so I relieved it with Advil. It was very painful again (Friday) morning and I was simply unable to concentrate. It was really bothering me and had begun to affect my playing partners.
“I came here with every intention of defending my Honda Classic title. Even though my results haven’t revealed it, I really felt like I was rounding a corner. This is one of my favorite tournaments of the year and I regret having to make the decision to withdraw, but it was one I had to make.’’
So McIlroy’s 2013 season results read like this: Four-and-a-half competitive rounds of tournament golf, one missed cut (Abu Dhabi), one elimination from the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match play last week and one withdrawl after a round and a half.
The spotlight on McIlroy is particularly intense because of the ballyhooed equipment switch he made from Titleist to Nike, which is paying him a reported $10 to $15 million per year to play the Swoosh clubs.
In McIlroy’s first tournament of the year, the day after his splashy press conference to announce his move to Nike, he ditched the Nike putter after one round and went back to his Scotty Cameron putter.
Since then, even as McIlroy has struggled, he has insisted that his problem is not the equipment but his swing, which before the Honda he called “chalk and cheese’’ when comparing it to last year’s form.
Nevertheless, the equipment scrutiny will intensify until McIlroy finds some success with the new sticks.
It had already been a nightmarish early season for McIlroy and Friday’s events became a low point.
During his Friday round, McIlroy began his misery with a double bogey on the 11th hole, his second of the day. He bogeyed the 13th hole and then it got bad on No. 16, where he carded a triple bogey with two balls hit into the water.
By the time he got to 18 and rinsed his second shot into the lake, McIlroy had clearly had it, prompting his bizarre behavior as he marched off the course without even finishing the hole.
According to the PGA Tour, “During a round a player may withdraw because of injury or other disability which requires medical attention or a serious personal emergency.’’
In this case, it seems McIlroy’s personal emergency was not physical, but mental.