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Missing Links: 'McIlroy's court case could put Masters bid in rough'

October 22, 2014

Stories of interest you might have missed…

The headline to this Kevin Garside column in the Independent is ominous: "Rory McIlroy's court case could put Masters bid in rough." McIlroy and his former agency, Horizon, are embroiled in a dispute that will go to court in February, "two months before the tournament he has made it his priority to win," Garside writes of McIlroy's bid to complete the career grand slam. "He…has showed that he is vulnerable when matters spiral beyond his control, as this case might with devastating consequences for his reputation, should the judge decide in the opposition's favour."

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(Getty Images photo)

Jason Dufner withdrew from the PGA Championship in August with a neck injury and hasn't been seen since. Until now. Dufner returns to competition at the Perth International in Australia. "I took three weeks off in the middle of the year because I had a gut full of feeling like I wasn't getting out of it what I was putting into it," he said in this story by Chris Robinson in Perth Now. "You just you can't underestimate how valuable taking a week or two off is. Doing this is such a grind that you've got to really, really, really want to be there. If you take a few weeks off you get pretty itchy to go play golf. That can be the difference."


"No-one needs to persuade me about the merits of Wales's finest-ever golfer," Derek Lawrenson writes in the Daily Mail regarding Ian Woosnam's omission from the World Golf Hall of Fame. Lawrenson was one of 16 members of the selection commission. "I've written about Woosnam my whole working life. At a time when Hall of Famers like Seve, Greg Norman, Sandy Lyle, Tom Watson and Sir Nick Faldo were at their peak he was, for a time, quite clearly the best golfer in the world. It's a horrendous omission." Woosnam's response: "After seeing the results of the golf world hall of fame, I think it's time to say goodbye to golf and retire."


The odds weren't good for Carlos Ortiz' bid to join the PGA Tour. Or for any other Mexican player, either. "Only five Mexican-born players had ever made it to the PGA Tour," Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press writes in this look at the PGA Tour rookie. "Two of them won tournaments a generation before he was born, the most recent title by Victor Delgado in 1978 at the Ed McMahon-Jaycees Quad City Open."


"Fatherless black kid. 8th grade drop out. Broken home. Running with the wrong crowd," Gerald Ensley of the Tallahassee Democrat writes in this profile of an aspiring professional golfer, Kamaiu Johnson. "I was going down a dark road when I found golf," Johnson said. "There is no doubt, golf saved my life." He is turning professional this weekend.