There was a time when a golf photo shoot consisted of a bearded bloke in a bunnet standing with a mashie niblick and sporting the kind of sombre, haunted look that resembled a disused quarry.
In the razzmatazz of the modern era, though, such a modest, run of the mill pose simply won’t cut it. When Rory McIlroy injured his ankle playing football last summer, the golfing world went into meltdown as all and sundry shrieked and wailed in panic and insisted that wee Rory should wrap himself in cotton wool and spare everybody another anguish-laden episode. A kick-aboot with his pals was a definite no-no but it seems strapping himself into a harness and hurtling down a death slide some 300 feet above the Dubai Fountains is a much less perilous pursuit.
It was all in the name of publicity, of course. Ahead of today’s opening round in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, the cameras were clicking and the videos were rolling as one of the world’s most prominent and valuable sportsmen flung himself off a platform and zoomed his merry way to the other end. “Someone suggested that we try zip-lining, so I thought I’d do it on my afternoon off,” said McIlroy, with the kind of shrugging nonchalance that Evel Knievel used to adopt when confronted with a row of London buses.
It will be back to business on terra firma today for the world No 2 as he looks to have another highly profitable week in one of his happiest hunting grounds. Ever since he won his first event as a professional on the European Tour in the Desert Classic of 2009, Dubai and McIlroy have got on like a house on fire. He won the DP World Tour Championship in 2012 and the Desert Classic again last February. Having signed off 2015 with another win in November’s Tour Championship, McIlroy is going for his third successive victory in this neck of the woods. "Leaving here with anything short of a win would be disappointing, of course it would," he said.
McIlroy is the star attraction this week. Not so long ago it was Tiger Woods. There is no sign of him in Dubai, or indeed any golfing venue, as his recovery from back surgery goes on. Who knows when we will see him again but McIlroy is retaining hope that there can be a few more golfing chapters in the Tiger tale. The Northern Irishman hopes to be part of it too. “I would still love to have a crack at him down the stretch in a major,” McIlroy told Dubai Eye radio as he offered his own insight into the world of Woods. “I am a huge Tiger geek. I could tell you all his achievements, when he won, where he won, where I was when he won them. This generation coming through grew up watching Tiger Woods and he was really the benchmark for us. He gives off this persona of being quite intimidating but once you gain his trust he’s great. He’s great fun both on and off the golf course. I only live 15 minutes away from him in Florida and we play some casual rounds together. He’s just a normal guy.
“I think he craves that normality in his life because his life has been so abnormal for so many years. I’m lucky I have a grounded life and I can do normal, everyday things and I can feel he craves that.”
Even Woods might have given that death slide a wide berth, mind you.
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