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SPORTSThursday 15 October 2015
McIlroy starts a new season before another season is over
DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
NAPA, California (AP) —
Rory McIlroy is starting a
new season on the PGA
Tour before finishing his oth-
er season on the European
Tour.
Such is the world of a golfer
who travels all over it.
A recent study conducted
by one of McIlroy’s spon-
sors revealed that over the
last 12 months, he has spent
350 hours in the air, 287
nights in a hotel and was in
118 airports. And that’s just
the travel. He also walked
932 miles on golf courses.
“That’s the sort of travel
that you have to do to be a
worldwide player,” McIlroy
said Wednesday. “It’s crazy
numbers. I definitely see a
day where those numbers
are going to drop. No way
I could sustain that for the
rest of my career. Whenev-
er that day is I’m not sure,
but for now, that’s the life I
live.
“I’m enjoying it, so I’ll do it hai and Dubai to finish off
for a while.”
McIlroy is the star attrac-
tion at the Frys.com Open,
which starts Thursday at
Silverado to kick off a new
season on the PGA Tour.
And to think it has been
all of 17 days since Jordan
Spieth ended the previous
season as the FedEx Cup
champion.
McIlroy is at Silverado be-
cause he was among eight
Eugenie Bouchard suing USTA over slip-fall at U.S. Open
MICHAEL BALSAMO
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Ten-
nis star Eugenie Bouchard
filed a lawsuit Wednesday
against the United States
Tennis Association that al-
leges the sport’s national
governing body was neg-
ligent, leaving her to slip
and fall in a locker room
Rory McIlroy attempts birdie with a chip up to the 18th green
during the third round of the Tour Championship golf tournament
at East Lake Golf Club, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, in Atlanta.
Associated Press make sure the ankle is fully
players who took part in an the Race to Dubai that he
exhibition event in Turkey currently leads on the Euro-
three years ago that was pean Tour.
held the same week as this “I feel like I’m in the middle
stop on the PGA Tour. They of a nice little run to the end
agreed to play the Frys. of the year,” McIlroy said. “I
com Open once over the guess for a lot of guys, even
next three years. the guys that played a full
Justin Rose, Charl Schwartz- PGA Tour schedule last sea-
el and Webb Simpson also son and then played the
are at Silverado, and Tiger Presidents Cup and they’re
Woods was supposed to coming here, it’s a lot of
join them until he recently golf. But as I said, I haven’t
had a second back sur- played as much as those
gery. The other three - Lee guys, so I’m happy to be
Westwood, Matt Kuchar playing and happy to play
and Hunter Mahan - played quite a bit until the end of
last year. Mahan is the only the year.”
one who returned. In some respects, McIlroy
It only adds to McIlroy’s started another “new” sea-
busy end of the year, no son in August.
matter the tour or the sea- He injured his ankle playing
son. football the first weekend in
After a week off, he is July and wound up missing
headed to Turkey, Shang- two months, including his
British Open title defense
during the U.S. Open.
Bouchard, who was a run-
ner-up at Wimbledon last
year, has suffered severe
pain and economic loss af-
ter the Sept. 4 incident, she
said in the federal lawsuit
filed in U.S. District Court in
Brooklyn that seeks unspec-
ified monetary damages.
The 21-year-old Boucha-
Eugenie Bouchard of Canada rd had just won a match
covers her face with a towel against Dominika Cibulko-
as she leaves the court after va when she returned to
retiring from her first round the locker room at the Bil-
match against Andrea Pet- lie Jean King National Ten-
kovic of Germany at the Chi- nis Center in Queens shortly
na Open tennis tournament at after 10 p.m. Minutes later,
the National Tennis Stadium in she slipped and fell on the
Beijing, Monday, Oct. 5, 2015. tile floor of a physiothera-
py room that is inside the
Associated Press locker room, slamming her
at St. Andrew, before re-
turning at the PGA Cham-
pionship. He has tried to
pace himself since then to
healed.
“I guess coming back at
the PGA for me was a start
of a new season, anyway,
so it’s been like two mini-
seasons a little bit,” he said. season well,” McIlroy said.
This is the third straight year “I want to try and win the
of the tour’s wraparound
season - October to Sep-
tember - and the Frys.com
Open has managed to at-
tract a stronger field each
year. It helps having McIl-
roy and Rose at Silverado,
though the field includes
players who were not part
of the Turkey deal. Hideki
Matsuyama, Chris Kirk and
Steven Bowditch came
straight over from the Presi-
dents Cup. Bowditch de-
scribed his offseason as a
“10-hour flight from Korea.”
Kirk could barely make it
from the practice range to
the tee box without players
stopping to congratulate
him for his 15-foot birdie
putt that was the most sig-
nificant in another U.S. vic-
tory in the Presidents. It felt come back from the injury
as if he had just won a tour-
nament.
It’s easy for McIlroy to feel
as though it has been a
long time since he won,
though the year hasn’t
been a total loss. He has
three victories - the Dubai
Desert Classic, Match Play
head against the ground.
The fall left Bouchard with
a concussion and “serious
head injury.” She later with-
drew from the U.S. Open
and tournaments in China
and Japan.
“Ms. Bouchard entered
the physiotherapy room of
the women’s locker room
when she was caused to
slip and fall by a slippery,
foreign and dangerous
substance on the floor,”
the suit says. The substance
was not identified in court
papers.
The Canadian player, who
was once ranked No. 5,
contends her injuries “were
caused solely by the rea-
son of carelessness, negli-
gence, wanton and willful
Championship and Wells
Fargo Championship - and
still was No. 1 in the world
until three weeks ago.
Not winning the three ma-
jors he played made it feel
like a lost year, though Mc-
Ilroy isn’t looking back.
“I’m focused on going for-
ward and trying to finish this
Race to Dubai over in Eu-
rope. I’m still leading that.
I have three tournaments
left to try and clinch that.”
He also has the best
chance to end the year
where he started - at No. 1
in the world.
Spieth is now at the top
after his win at the Tour
Championship three weeks
ago, though it’s so close
that Jason Day will return
to No. 1 next week. McIlroy
has more tournaments left,
including three strong fields
in Asia.
Spieth and Day have in-
spired McIlroy more than
they have motivated him.
“I’m ready to get back
into play and to compete
again,” he said. “Since I’ve
I’ve had a couple good fin-
ishes, but not really been in
contention. So I want to get
back in contention, have
chances to win golf tour-
naments. That’s really my
focus until the end of the
year. I’ve four opportunities
to do that.”q
disregard on the part of De-
fendant USTA.” She claims
the organization didn’t
keep the locker room in a
“safe and suitable condi-
tion” because the organi-
zation failed to maintain,
clean and repair the floor,
which led to her fall.
Bouchard said her world
ranking has dropped at
least 13 spots since the in-
cident last month and be-
lieves it is likely to continue
to decline.
Chris Widmaier, a spokes-
man for the United States
Tennis Association, de-
clined comment, say-
ing the organization had
a longstanding policy of
not discussing ongoing
litigation.q