Champion’s Breakfast :: May 4th Rampaging Rory, Willett, Casey & the WGC format

Rampaging Rory

With his second World Golf Championship title at the Match Play in San Francisco yesterday, McIlroy has now won six times in the past 12 months as he further strengthens his grip on the world No.1 spot.

The Northern Irishman now has ten PGA Tour wins to his name and, at 26 today, is only the third player after Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods to reach the milestone before that age.

“Every time I have a win, I keep hearing those guys’ names come up,” said McIlroy. “It’s great to be mentioned with the likes of Tiger and Jack, the two greatest players that I think have ever played this game.

“I’m on my journey, I’ll see where I get to. But right now I’m really happy with my tenth win and I’m going to go after my 11th next week at TPC .”

Good weeks for Willett and Casey

Danny Willett and Paul Casey both enhanced their positions in the world rankings with strong showings at TPC Harding Park.

Casey took McIlroy to 22 holes in an encounter which overran into Sunday – he was also ill on Saturday night – and on another day could’ve easily toppled the world No.1.

He said: “I was sick overnight, just very weak. Actually I hit two great shots into one. I got a very sticky lie on the back of the green and Rory made one for birdie.  It is what it is.”

Willett made it one step further than Casey to the semi-finals, where he was defeated by Gary Woodland. However, he did beat Jim Furyk to claim third spot.

“Obviously we’ve played a few events now over here, and we’ve got a little bit of points and money up,” said Willett. “So we knew that a decent one today would potentially give us a card for next year, which was kind of what we were hoping for.”

New format splits opinion

The new format for the WGC Match Play has split opinion among last week’s competitors with many having their say on it.

As usual, Ian Poulter didn’t hold back on his assessment of the format after losing his opening two group matches.

While Masters champion Jordan Spieth – who was knocked out in a head-to-head with Lee Westwood on Friday – offered a possible solution.

But Jordan, isn’t the clue in the name of the tournament?

Park wins in Texas – Ko scrapes cut

Inbee Park won the Volunteers of America Shootout for the second time in three years to secure her 14th career LPGA victory and narrow the gap to Lydia Ko, who currently occupies the No.1 spot.

Park won by three shots on 15-under par ahead of Cristie Kerr and compatriot Hee Young Park, while Ko finished down in T41 after just making the cut.

The Kiwi’s record of never missing an LPGA Tour cut was under serious threat after an opening round of 75 but she battled back with a 68 on Friday but couldn’t make any further inroads on the leaders as she finished on level par.