Will McIlroy win the Masters?

First topic message reminder :

So Rory has 3 out of the 4 majors in the bag at the pretty young age of 25. Will he easily add the Masters or will it elude him as the US Open has eluded Mickelson?

Roller_Coaster wrote:Have to admit I pay absolutely no attention to europro or even challenge tour stuff. If the europro is full of terrible players (noting the super "pinch of salt" in the comment - it's almost high praise in the pantheon of appreciation super shows!) what sort of prizes are on offer, how big are the fields where do they play etc?

A friend of mine is on it (one of the "not good enoughs" I'm afraid)

1st prize is about 10k, so only the guys around the top 5 can make a living after their considerable expenses, e.g £250 entry fee, plus accommodation, subsistence.

Some of the guys on it, are regularly shooting in the 90's. Appalling for someone claiming to be a pro. It seems there are simply a lot of guys on it with decent backing, but zero talent. It's amazing how deluded they can be. LIke the Britain's Got Talent of golf.
Usual field size, 130 ish.
Plenty guys shooting +20 for two rounds. Total racket for Mr Hearne, plus the courses pay for the privelege too.

Guess it's like everything though, not everyone can be good, but it's an amazingly low standard for much of the field.

Christ, tough existence for those using that route trying to "make it". Sounds like there may be a few pampered souls with a good wedge (of cash, obviously not the vokey kind) behind them. Fair play to them if they're happy out playing golf and happy paying for it, but I don't think I could be bothered!

Is it appreciably better or worse at the top end than the decent british/irish amateur events (the bottom end sounds worse!)? I know someone doing quite well this year in a load of those - he's up to 375 ish on the WAGR from (I think) no ranking at the start of the year.

Roller, there's probably greater talent in the "amateur" world, although, they are scarcely "amateur" these days.
In fact some of the better players at any club wouldn't be out of place on the Europro, and I'm even convinced I wouldn't be as bad as some of these guys.

Part of the problem is you can turn pro with a four handicap. Pro in name, not in reality.

If Woods stopped his subscription to the Wahayy! Tw@t it! School of Golf™ every time he tees it up, he'd probably improve his driving stats 100% although, interestingly, his driving accuracy % seemed a lot worse during his pomp (source: PGA Tour web site, driving accuracy %):

1. 2013 - 69th
   
2. 2012 - 55th
   
3. 2011 - n.d.
   
4. 2010 - n.d. (Sean Foley)
   
5. 2009 - T86th
   
6. 2008 - n.d.
   
7. 2007 - 152nd
   
8. 2006 - 139th
   
9. 2005 - 191st
   
10. 2004 - 182nd (Hank Haney)
    
11. 2003 - 142nd
    
12. 2002 - 107th
    
13. 2001 - 145th
    
14. 2000 - 54th
    
15. 1999 - 65th
    
16. 1998 - 116th
    
17. 1997 - 97th (Butch Harmon)
    

Notable that his best numbers were around 2000 when he held all 4 Majors at once. Pretty scheiss around '05/'06 so the rest of his game must have been out of sight around then. Wonder whether the recent numbers are a reflection of Foley's influence, using driver a lot less than in the past or some of both? What's pretty obvious is that he's always been (relatively) scheiss in terms of accuracy off the tee but that (until, apparently, recent years) it hasn't mattered a great deal!

Is nd "no driver"?

Sorry - 'not determined'. Nothing on PGA site for those years. I assume he didn't have enough rounds or whatever to qualify a return for that stat in those years.

Cheers navy. What about Total Driving? Seems he has taken off a few yards lately?

Just did a little google research to see how Rory and Tiger compare at the same age:

Rory: 3 Majors and 13 professional wins at the age of 25 and 3 months

Tiger: 5 Majors at the same age(about to win his sixth a couple of months later at the 2001 Masters). 24 PGA Tour wins before the age of 25. (I'm sure he had a few more non-pga tour wins at his point)

pedro wrote:Cheers navy. What about Total Driving? Seems he has taken off a few yards lately?

Maybe a bit. He's back at pre-1997 distances (but maybe he's hitting less drivers per round overall?) but it's ranking cf. the rest of the field that's a big difference. Driving distance:

1. 2014 - n.d.
   
2. 2013 - 49th (293.2 yards)
   
3. 2012 - 32nd (297.4)
   
4. 2011 - n.d.
   
5. 2010 - n.d.
   
6. 2009 - 21st (298.4)
   
7. 2008 - n.d.
   
8. 2007 - T12th (302.4)
   
9. 2006 - 6th (306.4)
   
10. 2005 - 2nd (316.1)
    
11. 2004 - 9th (301.9)
    
12. 2003 - T11th (299.5)
    
13. 2002 - 6th (295.3)
    
14. 2001 - T3rd (297.6)
    
15. 2000 - 2nd (298.0)
    
16. 1999 - 3rd (293.1)
    
17. 1998 - 2nd (296.3)
    
18. 1997 - 2nd (294.8)
    

Don't know when he went from DGX100 in his driver to graphite though - around 2003? Ish?

incontinentia wrote:Just did a little google research to see how Rory and Tiger compare at the same age:

Rory: 3 Majors and 13 professional wins at the age of 25 and 3 months

Tiger: 5 Majors at the same age(about to win his sixth a couple of months later at the 2001 Masters). 24 PGA Tour wins before the age of 25. (I'm sure he had a few more non-pga tour wins at his point)

I reckon Tiger had his private life back then much more under control than Rory has until recently. McIlroy seems to have his focus back now. That said Tiger was probably just better too.