Rory McIlroy vows no more mid-season soccer, that ‘next 10, 15 years is my time’

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Rory McIlroy surrendered No. 1 in the World Ranking to Jordan Spieth and “learned important lessons in the process,” BBC golf correspondent Iain Carter writes, no more mid-season soccer among them. “I really can't be doing silly things like playing football in the middle of the season,” McIlroy said. McIlroy tore ligaments in his ankle two weeks before the British Open last summer. There, too, are the Spieth and Jason Day obstacles. “I had a big lead in the world rankings and you see Jordan and Jason play the way they did,” McIlroy said. “Tagging along with that, you know, this is my time to capitalise on my career. The next 10, 15 years is my time.”

Is there an underlying reason why England’s Paul Casey is forgoing European Tour membership and a possible spot on the European Ryder Cup team to play full-time in the U.S.? “Justin Rose believes being overlooked for a wild card in 2010 is behind Paul Casey's decision not to rejoin the European Tour, meaning he will be ineligible for the 2016 Ryder Cup,” Phil Casey of the Press Association writes.

“The most awkward thing about Lydia Ko's latest success is not that she is running out of things to win, it is the fact she's still in her teens and people like me are running out of superlatives to describe her,” Dylan Cleaver of the New Zealand Herald writes. “Seriously, she's putting a dent in our trade. Nobody in New Zealand sporting history - not Crowe, not Lomu, not Snell, not Adams - has come close to putting together such a glittering resume so young.”