The Loop
Missing Links: Rory McIlroy remembers his roots, and an unusual recipe to restore U.S. Ryder Cup equilibrium
Stories of interest you might have missed…
Rory McIlroy has left Northern Ireland and is conquering the world of golf, but, he says in this story by Ewan Murray of the Guardian, he's still "a home bird. I love coming back. I was speaking to [the actor] Jamie Dornan about this last week at the Dunhill Links; the one thing I love is flying into Belfast City airport. Normally you are coming over Belfast Lough, you look left and you see Helen's Bay, Cultra, Holywood; where I grew up basically. It really makes me feel at home. I don't ever get a sense of that flying in anywhere else but I get it going into that airport. It's something that is very important to me."
Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy pose with Northern Ireland flag (Getty Images photo)
For the U.S. to regain its Ryder Cup equilibrium, John Huggan of the Scotsman, in his inimitable way, offers a 12-point plan. Point No. 9: "No wives or girlfriends. They have no business being at a Ryder Cup. They get in the way when they walk inside the ropes. They get in the way during team talks. They inevitably complain about stuff players don't need to be thinking about. And kitting them out in silly matching outfits is a complete waste of money."
The Kohler Company's success with Whistling Straits, site of next year's PGA Championship, hasn't simplified its efforts to build a course near Wisconsin's Black River and adjacent Black Forest. "Opponents of the project warn of devastating environmental damage to the Black River and the surrounding forest, of wells sucked dry by the thirsty work of keeping a golf course green and myriad inconveniences to Wilson residents," Janet Weyandt writes in the Sheboygan Press.
Former European Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher bemoans the loss of luster of the Volvo World Match Play Championship in this column in the Sunday Post. "Autumn in the UK meant one thing for golf - the Matchplay at Wentworth. Now, it's just another rich tournament in a crowded calendar," he writes.
In 2002, Donald Ross, Francis Ouimet, Fred Corcoran and Pat Bradley comprised the first class inducted into the Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame. It took 12 more years before a second class will be inducted, delaying the inevitable — the inclusion of the late Paul Harney. "When you consider Paul Harney's accomplishments, there really shouldn't be a Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame without him," Bill Doyle of the Telegram & Gazette writes in this look at his career.