Rory McIlroy's golf game deserves our praise. Right now, nothing else he has done in the last week or so is worthy of anything but scorn.
Happier Rory McIlroy in contention at BMW PGA Championship
Reports surfaced Wednesday that the former No. 1 men's golfer in the world called off his engagement to and broke up with former No. 1 women's tennis player Caroline Wozniacki during a phone call.
According to the Daily Mail, it sounded as if McIlroy was with Wozniacki at their Monaco apartment before departing for Surrey, England to play in the BMW PGA Championship. It was there that he reportedly told her he couldn't go through with the wedding. According to CBSSports.com, the Times of London reported that she thought the three-minute conversation was a joke.
The Daily Mail reported that she had no idea McIlroy was having cold feet.
Caroline Wozniacki hints at retirement so she can start a family
It was McIlroy who trotted out before the BMW and revealed the couple had broken up and admitted he realized he wasn't ready when the wedding invitations went out. He did say the breakup was mutual.
Fate added a cruel twist as McIlroy erased a seven-stroke deficit to start the final round to win the BMW PGA. Through it all, fellow players and media lauded McIlroy for his ability to persevere.
In its second-round recap when McIlroy was five strokes off the lead, heraldscotland.com reported, "With 36 holes to play, McIlroy is still in the hunt. Given the current state of his mangled mind, and the fact that he had missed the cut at Wentworth in his last two appearances here, McIlroy's presence in the upper echelons is worthy of admiration."
Thomas Bjorn, who was the third-round leader of the event, also talked about McIlroy in glowing terms after the second round.
"It says a lot about his character that he can still focus on the job and go out and perform the way he has," Bjorn said of McIlroy, according to Scotsman.com. "I don't know what is going on in his mind, but he is determined to show the world that he is still a good player. ..."
ESPN reported that "McIlroy put aside the anguish in his private life to win the European Tour's flagship BMW PGA Championship on Sunday."
"I guess when I got inside the ropes this week, it was a little bit of a release, and I was on my own and doing what I do best, which is playing golf, and that sort of gave me four or five hours of serenity or sanctuary or whatever you want to call it," McIlroy said.
"I was just focusing on the job at hand which was to play golf and get the ball in the hole in the lowest number of shots possible ... It's obviously been a week of very mixed emotions, but I'm sitting here looking at this trophy going, 'How the hell, how did it happen this week?' But it did."
It happened because the 25-year-old McIlroy didn't have the guts to tell Wozniacki face-to-face that he did not want to get married. Instead, he endured a 180-second phone call and an admittedly embarrassing news conference.
After that, it was smooth sailing. McIlroy got out of a marriage he did not want and didn't have to look his ex-fiancée in the face when he ended it.
You want anguish? Try walking in Wozniacki's shoes. Her tennis game continued to slide this year, but it was obviously taking a backseat to what she thought was going to be her future as a wife and mother.
"I want to be a relatively young mother, and I do not see it as being too far in the future," Wozniacki told Lime as Tennis World reported earlier this month. "I have always even been like that I would even want to bring up my children. Therefore, I have no dream to make my mark. Instead, I enjoy economic freedom (that) my hard work has given me. It means that I can give my children the best start in life by being there 100 percent for them."
That comment that she was giving up what may have been (or still could be) a great tennis career for McIlroy didn't faze him at all.
She had a knee injury that had kept her from being able to run or serve as she headed for the French Open. Her return to competition didn't have the fairy-tale ending like McIlroy's did. She was ousted in the first round.
Wozniacki didn't have to deal with an embarrassing news conference revealing her shortcomings. She only had to face a pitying media about a decision she didn't make, a decision that she said shocked her. But she also got through her news conference with grace and without throwing McIlroy under the bus.
For that alone, she deserves a trophy double the size of McIlroy's.
And now, Wozniacki has to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life, which includes determining whether she has the desire to regain the No. 1 ranking she had three years ago.
McIlroy is unburdened; Wozniacki is unhappy. That is completely unfair.
McIlroy's talent will make this incident a blip in what appears to be a promising career filled with adoring fans that won't care about his display of immaturity that took place these past several days.
But what a triumphant moment it will be if Wozniacki can also turn this incident into a blip on a successful tennis career. That day will be worthy of more praise than McIlroy deserves in his professional career.
For now, she'll have to settle for being the true winner over the weekend in the way she and McIlroy handled their breakup.
Will Caroline Wozniacki regain her No. 1 ranking? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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