McIlroy claims critics’ focus on
majors is ‘dangerous’ for game
By James Corrigan
GOLF CORRESPONDENTRory McIlroy has hit back at critics
rejecting his claims of “a very suc-
cessful year” because of his failure
in the majors, at the same time as
calling for the game’s calendar to
be radically overhauled.
McIlroy won a record $15 million
(£12.2 million) at the Tour Champi-
onship on Sunday, his third victory
of the year. Yet while it has been
his most lucrative campaign and
best in terms of statistics, his
five-year majorless run has led
some to wonder why the 30-year-
old struggles to peak at the big
tournaments.
This was just the second time in
his 11-year career in the majors thatThornley leads British success
By Rachel Quarrell in Linz
Vicky Thornley led the way at the
World Championships yesterday,
winning her quarter-final as six of
the nine British crews in action
continued their journey towards
the medals.
“It was probably one of my most
enjoyable races this year,” said the
Rio 2016 medallist, who beat single
scullers from Canada and China.
“Everything went to plan and I had
control of the race very early.”
She was joined in victory by the
lightweight double of Emily Craig
and Imogen Grant, and men’s dou-
ble, Graeme Thomas and John Col-
lins, although the latter pair had to
increase their rate at the end as
Switzerland came chasing back.
“We got through this race rea-
sonably comfortably but we’re
the four-time winner did not record
a top-five finish.
“People will ask why I didn’t play
better in those weeks, and maybe
[about my] preparation and a dif-
ferent mindset going into them,”
said McIlroy, who tees it up in
today’s first round of the European
Masters in Switzerland.
“But I feel that if I keep doing the
things I’m doing, sooner or later I’ll
get another one and all this noise
will then go away. However, if the
narrative becomes that the majors
are the only important thing in
golf, then that’s dangerous
because are fans not going to
care for the other 48 weeks a
year?”
McIlroy does recognise most
interest will always focus on the
big four and is concerned by the
majors being condensed into
four months. “I’d like to see
them spaced out, like tennis
does,” he said. “They’ve a nine-
month window of relevancy.”All smiles now: Rory McIlroy cuts a
relaxed figure in practice yesterdayobviously aware of their strong fin-
ish, so we did have to firm it up to
stay ahead. We didn’t have to use all
the gears, but we definitely had to
put a stop to that push,” Collins said.
However, Britain suffered their
first casualties of qualification for
next year’s Tokyo Olympics as the
women’s double, men’s lightweight
double and single sculler Tom Bar-
ras were relegated to the C/D semi-
finals by stronger competition.
The biggest racing incident of
the day – the Polish men’s pair hit-
ting an umpire’s boat which had
broken down – did not involve Brit-
ain, but Morgan Bolding and Tom
Jeffery, who qualified third behind
New Zealand, will be affected since
today’s planned semi-final has now
moved to tomorrow morning, only
one day before the medal race.
Today, Britain’s para-rowing
crews, the double and four, have
their chance to clinch 2020 Para-
lympic spots.Cruise control:
Britain’s Vicky
Thornley
dominated her
single scull
quarter-finalToday’s
big games
Coco Gauff v
Timea Babos
Gauff, the
15-year-old
who lit up
Wimbledon,
was at it again
on Tuesday,
coming from
behind to beat
Anastasia
Potapova in
three. Babos, a
former top-30
player, came
through
qualifying.Rafael Nadal v
Thanasi
Kokkinakis
The second
seed takes on
one of the
game’s most
unfulfilled
talents.
Kokkinakis
played in the
final of the US
Open juniors
six years ago
but has been
ravaged by
injury ever
since.Naomi Osaka v
Magda Linette
The world No 1
faces the No 53,
a Pole who
enjoyed the
best moment
of her career
last week:
victory in the
new WTA
tournament in
the Bronx.Sport
GOLF
ROWING
pressure on the grand slams has
split the leading players. While
(^) Novak Djokovic, the ATP player
council president, is believed to be
in favour, the letter has not been
signed by at least half of the top 10.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal,
(^) Dominic Thiem, Kei Nishikori and
Stefanos Tsitsipas are all under-
stood to have withheld their signa-
tures.
Yesterday’s action was restricted
to the two show courts with roofs,
because of recurring showers. In
the mid-afternoon match on Arthur
Ashe Stadium, Federer started
slowly for the second round in a
row, before recovering to beat
Damir Dzumhur 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.
“I didn’t expect to hit 15 to 20
(^) unforced errors [in the first set],
which is basically the entire set just
donated,” said Federer, who had
been equally sluggish in the early
exchanges with Sumit Nagal on
Monday. “I just need to take the
positives out of it, because once I
lose that first set I do get better.”
The Daily Telegraph Thursday 29 August 2019 ** 11
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