Quintin Jardine's blog

There is an old Scottish saying: ‘See him? He’d wish a humph on you.’ I’m afraid I did that to Rory McIlroy last night. Having kept an eye on his progress on line, I switched on to catch his closing hole, with him standing at 13 under and not having dropped a shot in 35 holes. No sooner had I tuned in than he dumped his approach to the last in the water and took a double bogey. (For non-golfers that will sound as if he had a head cold.) Nonetheless he stands nine shots clear of everyone in the field save for the very persistent Y E Yang of Korea.

This morning I read a fulsome piece in  the Daily Torygraph about the young Irishman. While I am a great fan of the lad, I wish that the writer had remembered three key facts before completing his paean: 1) they do not carve the winner’s name on the trophy until four rounds have been completed, 2) in his career to date, for all his high world ranking, young Rors has won only two events, no more than the young Italian Mateo Mannassero, who has only just turned 18, and 3) Y E Yang is the only man ever to have won a major in which Tiger Woods was the leader after three rounds.

I hope the kid has the bottle to bring this one home, but he’s not going to be helped by such ill-considered and premature tributes, especially after what happened at Augusta.