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VIRGINIA
WATER, England — Appearing at times on the verge of tears, Rory McIlroy
kept his date with the news media Wednesday in advance of this week’s
BMW PGA Championship, the European Tour’s flagship event, holding a news
conference the same morning that he announced the end of his five-month
engagement to the tennis star Caroline Wozniacki.
In
a statement made public by his communications team, McIlroy said, “The
wedding invitations issued at the weekend made me realize that I wasn’t
ready for all that marriage entails.”
He added, “I wish Caroline all the happiness she deserves and thank her for the great times we’ve had.”
McIlroy, 25, looked as if he wanted to fold into himself during the
question-and-answer session that lasted 6 minutes 40 seconds. His arms
were crossed and his gaze kept returning to his hands. “Yeah, obviously
quite a difficult time for Caroline and myself,” he said, adding, “It
was mutual and amicable and we both thought it was the best for us, the
best for both of us. Time to move on and I think I’ve said all that I
need to say.”
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Was
he tempted to pull out of the tournament to escape the public eye as he
mourns the end of a romantic relationship that, from their first
meeting in 2011 at a championship boxing match, played out in the
fishbowl that is social media?
“No,
I didn’t think there was any reason to do that,” McIlroy said. “There’s
no good time to sort of end a relationship, I guess.”
He
added: “The European Tour has been very good to me over the last number
of years, and I thought it was my duty to come back and play in this
event. You know, once I gave my word that I would, I wasn’t going to go
back on it.”
Asked
how tough a decision it was to break off the engagement, McIlroy
struggled to maintain his composure. “Look, I’m no different than anyone
else,” he said. “Everyone has been through breakups and it’s obviously
very, very difficult.”
The
moderator asked if there were any questions for McIlroy about golf. “At
least you’re at a golf course that you love,” one journalist began,
which made everyone in the room, starting with McIlroy, laugh.
“Yeah, look, I’ve enjoyed my times here,” he said.
McIlroy,
a former world No. 1 whose ranking has fallen to 10th, acknowledged
that it was going to be tough to keep his mind on golf. “I’m not going
to lie,” he said. “It’s going to be very difficult. But at least when I
get inside the ropes, just try and concentrate on the shot at hand.”
His
afternoon pro-am pairing promised to offer McIlroy the refuge he seemed
to be so desperately seeking. He was paired with Teddy Sheringham,
Peter Schmeichel and Phil Neville, three legends from Manchester United,
his favorite soccer team. In 1999, all three were in the squad that
defeated Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, a result that made
McIlroy, then 10 years old, very happy.
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