Liverpool Leftovers

As Hoylake grows smaller in the rear view mirror, let's sort through the reactions and implications.

Ratings Suckage - Pete Dougherty had the early numbers:

With Tiger Woods far out of contention and Rory McIlroy beginning with a six-stroke lead, the final round of British Open on Sunday produced a 2.6 overnight Nielsen rating on ESPN, a 28 percent drop from last year (3.6), when Phil Mickelson overcame a five-stroke deficit to win. 

The rating matched 2010 as the network’s lowest in the five years since the Open moved exclusively to ESPN.

I'd like to say that's an unfair comparison, as you can't expect a Rory blowout to match one with Phil in contention.  Except, of course, that I don't think anyone except Colin King thought Phil was still in it last year.  So I'll go with the blowout rationale, that's the ticket.

Attendance was also down, per The Guardian:

The 2014 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool attracted 26,059 fewer spectators than

Don't think this little guy's man did well at all.

when the tournament was played on the Wirral links in 2006. 

A total of 202,917 fans watched Rory McIlroy’s triumph during the week, down on record figures of 228,976 when Tiger Woods won eight years earlier.

I don't read anything much into that, as you had a low-turnout Saturday due to the weather forecast and split tees.  And this was buried deep in the piece:

The figures are still a major improvement on last year, when 142,036 spectators were at Muirfield to see Phil Mickelson’s victory. The R&A said a heatwave could have contributed to the low attendance, although ticket prices of £75 were also blamed.

Don't know about you, but 75 quid seems kinda steep for a golf tourney where you don't see a lot of actual golf.  Of course, such is the state of journalism that they can't be bothered to give us the comparable ticket prices in 2006 and last year.

Lastly, see if you find this interesting.  Classic Sports does a recap of the broadcast indicating how many of each player's shots were shown.  Here's the data from Sunday:

SPN showed all but one stroke by winner Rory McIlroy, skipping a tap-in putt on #3. ESPN televised all but 4 shots for each of Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia. Partway through the front nine, the network settled into a pattern of focusing almost exclusively on that trio who occupied the top three spots on the leaderboard for most of the day. During the tracking period, ESPN devoted 72.5% of the on-camera strokes to these three and spent a lot of air time showing them walking at the expense of other golf action. The only other player to be covered for more than 9 shots was Dustin Johnson. 

That mostly sounds about right to me, given the state of play. They don't give the breakout for Tiger, though they do for Phil (4 shots). And how should Charl Schwartzel feel? He finished T7 but never was on camera Sunday, making him the leading candidate for the prestigious Rodney Dangerfield award.  

Rors Reaxs - Shackelford had a clipping post with next day reactions to Rory's impressive win.  Mike Dawes had this piece on Rory's difficult day with the crowds:

Photos like this are making the rounds.

Rory McIlroy's supposed snub of a young autograph hunter has been explained by fellow golfer Ian Poulter. 

McIlroy appeared to blank a young fan who was after the Open winner's signature soon after lifting the Claret Jug. 

But Poulter took to Twitter to explain the difficult situation that the Northern Irishman found himself in.

Really, really silly as the above took place during play.  Players don't sign during play, period, full stop.

And also this:

It was not McIlroy's only incident with a fan all day, after earlier growing frustrated with a

He can't just yell "In the hole" like all the other jerks?

spectator whose noise interrupted his backswing at the 16th hole on Sunday. 

The three-shot leader hit an almost perfect drive down the centre of the fairway - but took exception to one member of the crowd, pointing them out to be ejected with his club.

Speaking out about the incident later, McIlroy said he had been consistently heckled by the offender throughout the day.

 And Ryan Lavner has the reaction from former BFF Graeme McDowell:

Watching the BBC broadcast, Graeme McDowell said that he felt “jealousy” watching Rory McIlroy march off the 16th tee, this close to the claret jug. 

No, that wasn’t the right word, G-Mac said a few moments later. 

“Just envious and respectful and appreciative of the curly-haired kid,” he said.

With the oh-so-much-fun litigation and mutual accusations swirling in the background, we're parsing anything they say about each other to a greater extent than the Dead Sea Scrolls, but it's haed to find anything objectionable there.

Rickie Don't Lose That Number - Beth Ann Nichols filed and after-action report on the Orangeman:

It’s easy to lose sight of Fowler’s flawless 5-under 67 in the shadow of McIlroy’s brilliance. But remember that Fowler birdied three of the last four holes. He finished 15 under at a major

and fell two shots shy of McIlroy’s standard. The confidence Fowler takes away from his experience will serve him well. 

“It doesn’t feel like a big stage,” Fowler said. “It feels like I should be here. I’m definitely pleased with it. There’s plenty more to come.” 

Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson likes a lot of things about 25-year-old Fowler. He likes his attitude, his work with Butch Harmon and the pressure that’s been lifted as a result of their progress with his swing. 

“He’s about ready to run the table,” Watson said.

I'd say that the chances of Rickie not being on the Ryder Cup are approaching zero percent.   Ian O'Connor added this nugget:

Fowler also earned a piece of history he'd probably rather give back: Ernie Els (twice) and Jesper Parnevik are the only other players to score in the 60s in all four rounds of the Open Championship and fail to win.

Well, it's not really fair to hold him to Jesper's standards, is it?

Jug Abuse - The Claret Jug, like the Stanley Cup, goes on a whirlwind tour with the victor, in this case serving its intended purpose, sort of.  James Corrigan with the lowdown on Rory's new accessory:

It must be doubted that the Claret Jug had ever before contained Jagermeiester, just as it must be doubted that a former US President had ever before congratulated The Open winner and challenged him to a rematch.

A quick dinner at the rented house he shared with his parents, Gerry and Rosie, and friends including his ‘bestest’, Harry Diamond, and it was into an exclusive Liverpool nightclub where he met up Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth. It was there where the 30-strong group had their fun with the jug, substituting claret with the German liqueur popular on the younger scene.

Alex Myers fills us in on the unauthorized details of Rory's background with the noxious dark substance:

The pictures of Rory McIlroy and the claret jug have been flowing since his win at Hoylake. And apparently, the Jagermeister has been flowing among his inner circle as well.

Not that we should be surprised. 

McIlroy, 25, has had a long, eventful history with the dark syrupy drink, which is impressive. There aren't too many people who could stomach a long history with Jager. We start in 2010, when a 21-year-old McIlroy tweeted this the day after Europe's win over the U.S. at the Ryder Cup in Wales:

You'll have to click through for further details on these crazy kids.

Hold The Jealousy -  Sam Weinman has drawn the short straw at The Loop, assigned to the Nadia Forde beat, and files this piece informing us that they're just friends:

But she's a good dancer and makes all her own clothes.

Just when you thought the stars had aligned once more in Rory McIlroy's universe -- claret jug in hand, big hug for Mom, big payday for Dad -- there is this about McIlroy's budding romance with Irish model Nadia Forde: actually, there is no budding romance.

Or at least that is what the Irish Independent is reporting following McIlroy's two-stroke win at Royal Liverpool. Citing friends of both McIlroy and Forde, the paper Monday said the two are not dating and have only been together recently because of mutual friends (Forde's fellow model and friend, Katie Larmour, is engaged to Rory's friend Harry Diamond).

According to a McIlroy friend, in fact, "she's not his type."

Colbert On My Turf - Click here to see the always-amusing Stephen Colbert's take on the Wozilroy double on Sunday.  Spoiler alert, he suspects the use of PED's.

Memory Lane - In the case of Rory, it more aptly might be mammary lane.  The Twitterverse was alive with chatter Sunday with the thought that Rory and Rickie had unintentionally recreated a picture from the 2007 Walker Cup.  You be the judge:

Not a great look for either of them, though in Rickie's case it's only the facial expression.  

That 2007 Walker Cup is a bit of a sore point for me.  Theresa and I were travelling in Ireland then, and couldn't find it on local television.  It was held at Royal County Down, which I hadn't played yet, and I was dying to get a look at.  I tried to program my VCR to tape it while we were away, but it didn't come off for some reason.  It was quite the U.S. team, including Colt Knost, Jamie Lovemark, Billy Horschel, Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson, and Kyler Stanley, in addition to Rickie.  

When we visited County Down the following year, I was told there was a DVD produced of it and given to the members.  When I asked if it was available for purchase, a very serious man came out from the back office to explain that it was only for members.  No need to help out a traveler paying full pop to play your course and who's actually interested in the event, so to this day I've never seen a shot hit in that Walker Cup.  Not had I seen the photo above.