London - Sir Nick Faldo believes small technical flaws are holding Rory McIlroy back and accounting for his maddeningly inconsistent season. He also thinks he and the other Olympic renegades are making a huge mistake in forsaking the festivities in Rio.
Three-time Open champion Faldo will be at Royal Troon commentating for Sky Sports this week and it is clear he won’t be holding back. He might be on the sidelines following his graceful exit from Open competition at St Andrews last year, but he will not be sitting on the fence.
Let’s start with Rory, and his curious campaign. ‘He’s suffering from a few technical things, in my view,’ said the Englishman. ‘I’ve been watching his swing very closely over the last few weeks and there are times when his knees move a little too much through the ball, and his hands move away from the body. It might not sound a lot but they’re tough things to correct when you’re trying to pound a driver out there. He’s just a little bit off. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before everything starts moving in synch once more.’
Faldo has been saddened by all the Olympic no-shows. ‘We’ve had Zika, we’ve heard about the security concerns and, unfortunately, Rio doesn’t seem to be on the guys’ radars,’ he said. ‘I think part of the problem is that it is not a team event. Could you have imagined Adam Scott pulling out if he had been part of a team with Jason Day? They’d have been talking to one another - if you go, I’ll go, that sort of thing.
‘At the end of the day I would have gone, that’s all I can say. I’d have loved the chance to win a gold medal. To become an Olympic champion, hold that title for four years and get a gold medal for life to show off to kids and grandkids? That would be pretty darned good, I’d have thought.’
Speaking of absentees, Faldo now fears we might have seen the last of Tiger Woods as a player.
It’s coming up to a year now since he was last seen competitively and Faldo said: ‘It’s not looking good for him as a golfer, is it? Physically he is not in good shape. He hit a few shots recently as promotion for a tournament and his back basically locked up. He’s just not as flexible any more as you need to be.’
Some final thoughts on a possible British winner at Troon?
‘We’ve got the Masters champion, which is pretty great and Justin Rose must have a shot,’ he said. ‘And then you’ve got these players who are on a nice climb up the rankings, like Andy Sullivan, Chris Wood and Matt Fitzpatrick. So while you wouldn’t rate any among the favourites, there’s definitely a decent chance.’
Daily Mail