McIlroy criticises design of Sawgrass and Whistling Straits

So that's Rory off Pete Dye's

Chrismas Card list

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE

By KEVIN GARSIDE

These are heady days for European golf. Rory McIlroy mocks America by dismissing the 2011 Players Championship at Sawgrass, the richest prize in the game, and the respective winners of the US Open and US PGA, Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer duel for the European Tour crown in the Race to Dubai. Take that, and that, and that.

So much for the shuffling of the American deck to accommodate Europe’s elite golfers at the ‘fifth major’, which pays out the game’s only £1 million-plus winners’ cheque. Though McIlroy, pictured, said he was “not sure” about his attendance at Sawgrass next year, his expression screamed, “You must be joking”.
“I don’t like the golf course for a start. So that’s one of the reasons that I’m undecided,” he said. “I find it very awkward off the tee. You’re hitting across fairways all the time. It creates angles, a bit like Whistling Straits. The tee boxes are sort of lining you up in the wrong direction.’’
The noise you can hear in the background is the sound of McIlroy falling off the Christmas card list of Pete Dye, who designed both Sawgrass and Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
A jackpot of £1.7 million is available to McDowell and Kaymer, were either to take the Race to Dubai title by winning here this weekend. With sums like that sloshing about one understands how the American tour is losing its attraction for Europe’s top players.
One imagined 2010 could not get much better for either McDowell or Kaymer, yet here they are giving each other the cold stare as they strive for more booty.
“Of course I want to look Martin in the eye and say, you know, let’s go, let’s get this on,” McDowell said. “The adrenalin is going to be there from the word go. There’s definitely an interesting atmosphere between the two of us.
“Yesterday, when we were messing around doing major championship photos there was definitely a quiet stand-off there. I can definitely feel from him that he’s extremely driven and he really wants this desperately.
"And I feel like I’m the guy with the momentum coming in here. I certainly hope he thinks I’m playing great and I can give him a run for his money.” Technically McIlroy leans towards Kaymer, who, he said, “has that German thing about him. He’s just very efficient.”
McIlroy is not alone in classifying McDowell as unorthodox, the kind of sawn-off swing you do not find in textbooks. The record book is the one that matters, and in that McDowell is the equal of Kaymer at one major apiece.
In terms of sentiment McIlroy is pulling for his fellow Ulsterman. “If there’s anyone that deserves it this year, it’s probably him, because I’ve seen how hard he’s worked,’’ he said.
“If you looked at them both just on their game as ball striking and everything, you would say that it [the long course] suits Kaymer more than it suits Graeme. But as I say, Graeme is on such a roll, I don’t think it matters what golf course he plays.’’
McDowell and Kaymer are paired together in tomorrow's first round , and go out last.

Meanwhile, Tim Finchem, the US PGA Tour commissioner, is looking to Tiger Woods to lead the golf revival in America. Under threat from falling TV ratings and the reluctance of Europe’s top players to commit to the US PGA events, Finchem is playing the Woods card ahead of TV contract negotiations.

The absence of Woods, who has played only 11 US PGA Tour events this year, from the America rosta has seen ratings shrink by up to 26 per cent. With television contracts up for renewal in 2012, Finchem needs Woods back on the fairways.

“The most dominating player in a sport in history, you want him playing because it makes a lot of things work a lot better,” Finchem said.

Woods proved his pulling power at the HSBC Champions Event in Shanghai three weeks ago, attracting by far the largest galleries on the course.