The Loop
Rory McIlroy’s ‘year that got away’ convinces him to to give up football
Stories of interest you might have missed…
Rory McIlroy calls 2015 “the year that got away,” causing him to do some soul-searching. “McIlroy has finally conceded that he must hang up his football boots and has also admitted that he considered quitting the European Tour,” James Corrigan of the Telegraph writes. “If the former revelation will bring relief across the game then the latter will cause alarm in certain quarters.”
US PGA TOUR
Danny Lee is a Korean whose childhood home is about 30 minutes from the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, site of the Presidents Cup this week. “How badly did Lee want to be a part of the first Presidents Cup held in Asia? He played 36 events this season, the most on the PGA TOUR. He was the last of 10 players who automatically qualified (with two others chosen as Captain's Picks). ‘Now I can die in peace,’ he said after clinching his spot on the 12-man roster,” Sean Martin of PGATour.com writes in this profile of Lee.
“Envision this, Chicago golf fans: A championship-caliber course on the lakefront. Discounted tee times for city residents. A caddie program that creates jobs and could yield college scholarships. A BMW Championship that lives here, rather than rotating among Conway Farms in Lake Forest, Medinah and cities such as Indianapolis and Philadelphia,” Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune writes in this story on Chicago-area native Mark Rolfing’s vision for what he calls “the future of urban golf in America.”
Gerina Piller made a crucial par-saving putt to help the U.S. win the Solheim Cup. Her husband Martin Piller, played the web.com Tour this year and played his way back onto the PGA Tour next year. In this ESPNW story, Bill Fields examines how two tour golfers balance golf and their marriage.