{"id":482017,"date":"2026-05-13T05:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/482017\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T05:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:04:15","slug":"rory-mcilroy-curtails-practice-round-after-three-holes-due-to-minor-toe-injury-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/482017\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy curtails practice round after three holes due to minor toe injury \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The black-tie formalwear required for a state dinner at the White House was dispensed with. Here, Rory McIlroy<\/a> was very much at ease at his press conference, dressed in shorts and hoodie without any headwear and the laces on his Nike<\/a> Airs undone so that the right foot from where he\u2019d self-extracted the nail on his little toe had some room to manoeuvre.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want to see it?\u201d he asked, nimbly dipping to slip his foot from the sneaker and remove the sock and then the little blister pad to reveal his handiwork. \u201cI ended up ripping the toenail off last night just because it was bothering me so much, so it\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy will size up to 42\u00bd in golf shoes to give a little more room for the journey ahead for the coming days, but the issue has not completely gone away. McIlroy had to stop his Tuesday practice round at the PGA Championship after three holes because of pain in his toe.<\/p>\n

The Masters<\/a> champion heads off in search of a third Wanamaker Trophy at this 108th edition of the US PGA Championship<\/a> at Aronimink Golf Club, an old Donald Ross classic.<\/p>\n

McIlroy had looked relaxed in his own skin when speaking with the media, and with a freer head in mapping out his own way of preparing for the Major championships which have become the focus point of each and every season for the Northern Irishman.<\/p>\n

He knows, everyone knows, he is the only player in Philly who can become the first player to win all four Majors in the one season. An impossible ask of anyone, so far anyway. Not Jack. Not Tiger. No one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a reason no one\u2019s been able to do it before in the history of the game,\u201d said McIlroy. \u201cIt is possible, but it\u2019s very, very difficult. I think the best thing that you can do is give yourself a chance in each one and then just see where the chips fall at the end of the day on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is quite a lot of randomness at times to winning golf tournaments. You have to have a lot of things go your way along with playing well yourself. In a hundred years\u2019 time, if one person has done it, I would say I would see that happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

But McIlroy knows the deal better than anyone at this point, his career Grand Slam achieved last year and, most recently, back-to-back Masters added to the curriculum vitae of golfing greatness. He now has other goals \u2013 overtaking Nick Faldo\u2019s career six Majors among them \u2013 in his sights.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rory McIlroy \u2018more motivated than ever\u2019 as he returns to golf for first time since Masters triumphOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThese four weeks a year are the biggest weeks,\u201d he acknowledged, \u201cand then you throw a Ryder Cup in there every other year and it\u2019s five big weeks a year. I just feel like I\u2019m at a point in my life and my career that these are the most important things, and these are the things that people are going to remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully I still win PGA Tour events going forward and DP World Tour events, but all of my focus and everything that I do is geared towards making sure that I\u2019m ready for these four weeks a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RoryRory McIlroy adjusts his shoe during the final round of the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday. Photograph: Andrew Redington\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s reappearance on tour at the Truist at Quail Hollow was McIlroy\u2019s first tournament since retaining the green jacket at the Masters last month. The past few weeks have also included that visit to the White House and downtime with his family. Similar to his preparations in advance of Augusta, his coach Michael Bannon travelled over for a week\u2019s swing work, mostly at the Bear\u2019s Club in Florida, but also taking in a day trip to Philadelphia to access the site for this season\u2019s second Major championship.<\/p>\n

First and second impressions of the task ahead?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s, basically, bash driver down there and then figure it out from there, which I think is [typical of] a lot of these newly renovated [courses]. I think about Oak Hill in 2023, here. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee … it\u2019s a course where you can be super aggressive off the tee, and then there\u2019s a little more strategy and a little more thought going into the greens,\u201d observed McIlroy.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0PGA Championship venue Aronimink is an old-school classic that rewards the complete golferOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Yet, compared to a year ago when he arrived for the PGA at Quail Hollow following his first Masters win believing he\u2019d scaled Everest and wondered what was next, there is a confidence and vibe about McIlroy of knowing there is yet more to achieve to add to his golfing legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came into this tournament last year a little bit sort of uncertain of what my future was, like I conquered this thing that I wanted to conquer for so long, and I still hadn\u2019t really reset goals or found whatever that motivation was to keep going or go forward and set myself goals for the rest of my career. It probably took me a good few months to get to that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing into this tournament feels a lot different than what it did last year. I feel like I\u2019ve got some nice, clear road ahead to try to get some more of these Majors.\u201d<\/p>\n

A man on a mission, it would seem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The black-tie formalwear required for a state dinner at the White House was dispensed with. Here, Rory McIlroy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[5949,18,19,17,120606,5952,55369,132,21901],"class_list":["post-482017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-dp-world-tour","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-masters","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-ryder-cup-2027","tag-sports","tag-us-pga-championship"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116565526067408120","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}