DORAL , Fla. — The location of Rory McIlroy’s room at the Trump National Doral for this week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship is ironic: He’s staying in the “Tiger Woods Villa,’’ one of the renovated buildings at the resort “The Donald” is in the process of buffing out with all the bells and whistles.
“There are pictures all over my room of him,’’ McIlroy said jokingly on Wednesday, the day before he shot 1-under-par through 14 holes in the rain-shortened WGC-Cadillac opening round Thursday. “I sent him a message [saying], ‘I can’t get away from you here; I can’t go to the bathroom without looking at you.’ ’’
As a kid growing up in Northern Ireland, McIlroy always looked up to Woods, idolizing him as a figure who was as influential as anyone to his desire to become a professional golfer.
Now, despite being 12 career major championships behind Woods’ 14, McIlroy has positioned himself as the one player who has the most potential to make a run at Woods’ throne, having won his first two majors by the age of 22 and having unseated Woods as the No. 1 ranked player in the world (a title Woods has since wrested back).
That has vaulted McIlroy to the doorstep of Woods’ world — a world of unrealistic expectations and excruciating pressure most players do not have to deal with.
Five days ago, McIlroy looked uncomfortable in that world, failing to close out his three-round lead at the Honda Classic with a final-round Sunday meltdown at PGA National.
If McIlroy is going to go on to do a fraction of what Woods has done in his remarkable run since turning pro, he is going to have to learn to deal with those expectations Woods has dealt with for some 15 years, a place where a week without a win is a failed week.
With the flawless way McIlroy was playing for the first three rounds at the Honda Classic, there were few, if any, who did not expect him to close it out and win, and when he didn’t, it was as if the sky was falling.
Sixty seven times worldwide in his career Woods has taken the outright lead or a share of it into the final round of a tournament and 57 times he has won. In PGA Tour events, Woods is 57-4 in that scenario.
The first 54-hole lead of McIlroy’s career came at the 2011 Masters when he took a four-shot lead into the final round, shot 80 and lost by 10 shots. He went on to close out his next four 54-hole leads after that and, on eve of the final round at Honda, spoke about how much of a learning experience Augusta was for him in 2011.
The Honda Classic is not a major and still McIlroy allowed his nerves to sabotage him, succumbing to the pressure.
“It’s not easy,’’ Woods said. “Look at my first go at it when I had the lead going into a Sunday; I lost to the ‘Gripper’ [Ed Fiore at the 1996 Quad City Classic]. But you learn and you apply it. I applied it throughout the years. How I approached that [Quad City] round at the time, that was important to me.
“If I won that tournament, I would have my Tour card. I would have an exemption and I would be on the Tour the next two years, and that was huge. That was coming off just turning pro, so I really wanted that win. It didn’t happen. But I learned from it … and won two times that year.’’
McIlroy, choosing to accentuate the positive — putting himself in position to win — said the weight of expectation had “nothing to do’’ with his Sunday collapse.
“You’re not going to win every event that you play, but … if you can give yourself at least a chance going into Sunday, then that’s all you can really ask of yourself,’’ McIlroy said. “It’s not realistic to sit here and say, ‘I want to win every tournament I play,’ because history shows it’s just not possible.
“I don’t expect myself to win every tournament I play.’’
Those last words are where McIlroy and Woods differ. Whether realistic or not, Woods always has said he goes into every tournament expecting to win.
If Woods wanted to be cynical, he could tell McIlroy this: “Welcome to my world. It’s not as easy as I’ve made it look.’’