McILROY NOT FOR SAWGRASS - SO WHAT? IS US REACTION

FROM THE JACKSONVILLE.COM WEBSITE
Submitted by Garry Smits on January 25.
Garry Smits' Blog
Rory McIlroy of Ireland has announced on a smug Twitter feed that he will not enter the 2011 Players Championship.
Fans glancing at his two-year record at the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course wonder if he ever did show up.
McIlroy, a native of (Editor: Northern) Ireland, is seventh on the current World Golf Rankings. Lee Westwood of England, ranked first, announced he would opt out of The Players last week.
McIlroy's intentions, at which he hinted last fall, came through a Twitter message he sent to Westwood (part of a series of tweets among McIlroy, Westwood and Ian Poulter on Tuesday afternoon that showed (A) They must have decided to take the day off from practising and (B) They proved they can act like a gaggle of eighth-grade girls).
McIlroy's message was: "I've decided no holes at Sawgrass is better than my usual 36 holes."

I can see why McIlroy doesn't want to bother. In two starts in The Players, 2009 and 2010, he has missed the cut twice, shooting 74-77-73-72. That's an average of 74.0 in the lowest-scoring back-to-back Players since 2003 and 2004.

You've also got to wonder if this isn't in some way a childish reaction by McIlroy for not being voted rookie of the year in 2010, when he held PGA Tour membership and won the Wells Fargo Championship, as well as solid performances in the majors.
Rickie Fowler was voted the award by the PGA Tour players, but only after McIlroy said he would not accept his Tour membership. In the minds of many players, I suppose their thought was, "why vote someone rookie of the year on our Tour, when he doesn't want to be on our Tour?"
Maybe that wasn't the best reason to vote for Fowler. Clearly McIlroy had the better year. But is passing on the fifth biggest golf tournament in the world any more of a mature reaction?
There's a common thread here: Westwood and McIlroy are both represented by the same agent, Chubby Chandler, who is engaging in a war of words with the US PGA Tour in the media over scheduling issues and apparently some ambiguous notion that the Tour is an evil empire out to stick it to European Tour players.
Chandler apparently hasn't figured out that the US Tour loves it when international players do well in its events, which boosts international TV ratings. In addition, the Tour doesn't have to bend over backwards to accommodate non-members.

Oh, right ... it has. The US Tour modified its rule about events for non-members to help them schedule The Players. Non-members are restricted to 10 tournaments (which counts the four majors). But The Players doesn't count towards that 10.

And as was pointed out in this corner last week, Westwood's announcement didn't even raise a yawn among First Coast golf fans. The news that another European isn't making the trip to Ponte Vedra Beach in May -- especially one who doesn't seem to have the game for the course -- will be greeted with even less concern.