Rory McIlroy’s “disorderly” lifestyle may be contributing to his recent lack of success and poor showings in major championships.
Here’s what McIlroy’s former agent, Andrew “Chubby” Chandler, said to talkSPORT about McIlroy’s disastrous start to the British Open.
The Northern Irishman previously won the tournament in 2014 and is now competing at Royal Troon in South Ayrshire.
However, he got off to a poor start on the first day, suffering a defeat on the famous “Postage Stamp” eighth hole.
He had double bogeys on the eighth and 11th holes and finished the course at seven-over par.
The 35-year-old will face an uphill battle if he is to recover on day two and take part in this weekend’s qualifying.
But Chandler told talkSPORT that McIlroy may be having a lot of issues in his personal life at the moment which is undoubtedly affecting his performances and is the main reason why he has not won a major title in a decade.
“Top class players obviously play well more often, but really top class players take their chances,” he said. “That’s what happened with Rory. He played great for 10 years and he just didn’t take his chances.”
“From the outside, I haven’t seen Rory for a few years and it looked to me like his life was a mess. You know what it’s like as a sportsman, you’ve got to be totally focused and keep your mind on what you’re doing.”
“But then Rory seems to have been fighting LIV on the PGA Tour for a year and a half, then the PGA Tour betrays him, he starts saying LIV isn’t so bad, then he has problems in his marriage, and then he’s under media scrutiny because he hasn’t won a major championship in 10 years.”
“So he can’t escape it. I think his life is a total mess.”
Chandler served as McIlroy’s first manager until 2011, when McIlroy decided to part ways with his agent, International Sports Management (ISM).
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Asked about his early days working with McIlroy, Chandler replied: “Well, his life was less chaotic at that time. We had a meeting on the patio at Carnoustie during the British Open, I think it was 2007, three months before he turned professional, and he bought a house before he’d actually made any money.”
“His contract was going to be so good in three months that he sat down and said, ‘I want to buy a house’ – I’d never heard a kid like that say that. And he did – he bought a house before he turned pro. With deals with Jumeirah Hotels, Titleist and all that, the money was going to come in.
“He was just a focused kid who wanted to be the best player in the world and want to win major championships. But as you get older — and let’s be fair, as everybody gets older, life gets more complicated, don’t you think? You have a family, you have a wife, you have a business, you have investments. Things get more complicated.”
“And I think his life has been ruined. I bet he’s wondering what time he’s going to get his plane fixed and get home!”
“Look, he’s going to play his best today (Friday) and he’s playing really good, so if he plays his best he’ll make the cut, but he’ll have to play really well, right? So seven over par? He’ll have to shoot 67 or under, and he’s more than capable of doing that.
“But in his mind, I’m sure he’s thinking, ‘When am I going to get out of here?’ I think the last place he wants to be right now is on the golf course, obviously playing poorly. He just wants to get back to a normal life.”
McIlroy will tee off alongside partners Tyrrell Hatton and Max Homa at 3.10pm on Friday and the event will be shown live on talkSPORT 2.
He hasn’t won a major tournament since 2014, when he won the British Open as well as the PGA Championship.
But while McIlroy went into the tournament with high expectations and favourable odds, sports psychotherapist Gary Bloom told talkSPORT Breakfast the pressure to deliver a big win would not have worked in his favour.
“We’re all asking, when is the next time he’s going to win a major,” he said, “and my view is that he has a lot of mental scarring left and I think that’s going to affect his game.”
“Golf is the most mentally demanding sport of any in the world.
“There is no other sport that is more mentally demanding because you have about three or four minutes between shots and you have to be totally mentally present for those four minutes before you can engage again. There is no other sport that gives you that much time to dwell on what went wrong.”
“In a football match, something happens quickly. Even as a Formula One driver, you always have to think about what’s going to happen next.”
“In golf the process has to be absolutely precise, but I would argue there were events in Rory’s personal life, as well as his professional life, that did not lead to his success.”
“Honestly, I would tell him to take a few days off because it’s like having a car wreck. Nobody should ever wreck their car, but you don’t want to put it back on the road right away. You need to figure out why it happened. So just trying to get him running again isn’t necessarily going to help.”
“If you try to repair, we call it rupture and repair, but if you try to understand what happened, you have to understand the process of what tragically happened. In sports, of course, it’s called ‘chalking’. Why did you chalk? You have to understand why you chalked.”
“You have to figure out what to do next. When you get to a big tournament, you have to practice that.”
“Frankly, going back to another major or big tournament so soon is not going to help.”