Tom English: ‘I don’t care if Rory McIlroy challenges Tiger’s record so long as he doesn’t change in pursuit of it’

Hell, the game needs Woods in the mix so badly that every time he puts together two decent rounds the pulse quickens at the prospect of him contending at the majors again. We might bitch and moan about his lack of grace and bad manners and his control freakery but we still want to see him coming down the stretch neck-and-neck with Rory. For Woods, the evidence of a comeback is flimsy, but in this world it’s enough to go on.

Sometimes in golf so much is made of so little. We have had several false dawns already in the Tiger renaissance story. Tiger plays well on a Thursday and the mutterings begin. “Is this the moment?!” Then on Friday he shoots in the high 70s and it’s “He’ll never be the same again”. We’ve been riding this rollercoaster for quite a while, constantly wondering if Woods can get back to something close to his former self. Some in the locker room say yes. Others say no. Everybody’s guessing because nobody can know for sure what Tiger is going to do next. All we know is that every time he shows a couple of days of good form the excitement will mount and every time he has a bad day he will be written off as just another player destined to live out the rest of his career as a glorified toiler.

Over the last while, McIlroy has started to provoke similar emotions. When he blundered his way around the course on Friday – two double bogeys and three bogeys to go with the quadruple bogey in his opening round – the questions continued to be asked about what is ailing him right now. Three missed cuts in a row. Four times in the water in two days. The worst run of form since he failed to make the weekend at the Swedish Masters, the Dutch Open and the Johnnie Walker in August 2008. He hasn’t produced such a dismal series of results since he was 164th in the world. We could go on and on here, trotting out the stats to show what a rut he is in, each of them painting a picture of a player in crisis.

Only he’s not. We’re creating the crisis for him. When he plays in Memphis this week – a tournament he has added to his schedule to prepare himself for the US Open – would anybody be surprised if he opened with a 66 and went on to contend or even win the thing? No, because “crises” tend to come and go for the most scrutinised golfers. Several times during his dominant years, Woods had a little lull, a major championship-winning vacuum that was filled by earnest talk of “What’s wrong with Tiger’s game?” The answer for so many years: nothing at all.

McIlroy will refocus and he’ll stop making the daft mistakes he’s been making on the golf course and he’ll get his confidence back and he’ll start winning again, but being analysed to death is something he’s going to have to put up with for the rest of his days. This is the thing, you see. We want Rory to be the new Tiger and so, consciously or sub-consciously, there is a tendency to judge him by Tiger’s exalted, and surely unmatchable, championship-winning standards. Just hours after he won the US Open last year, the world of golf was full of chat about whether Rory could get to Jack Nicklaus’s record before Tiger, a level of appreciation of the Northern Irishman’s ability that was merited while also being laced with a desperation to anoint a new genius in the game.

Frankly, I don’t care if McIlroy challenges Tiger’s or Jack’s record so long as he doesn’t change in the pursuit of it. How profoundly depressing it would be if Rory became Tiger-ish off the golf course and built the barriers high so that nobody could see what he’s about, so that no fan could get close to him and talk to him and be charmed by him. He’s a young man who’s fine as he is. When he admitted last week that he’d taken his eye off the ball of late that was an instructive comment that showed you the guy’s self-awareness and maturity and honesty. Tiger wouldn’t say something like that about himself even if he knew it was true. He’d just keep banging on about “reps” and saying “it is what it is” without actually saying what “it” is.

Let’s put the McIlroy “slump” into perspective here. Less than a month ago he was 14-under at the Wells Fargo championship and only lost the tournament in a play-off with Rickie Fowler. In March, McIlroy won the Honda Classic. Elsewhere in 2012, he finished second, second, third and fifth before his recent bad run. Yes, three missed cuts and a whole lot of bad shots takes a bit of explaining but I’d trust him to come up with the answer.

Like the talk of Tiger’s resurgence, the chat about Rory’s travails has been exaggerated, just a little.

Garry O’Connor scores the saddest of own goals

There are many extraordinary things about the downfall of Garry O’Connor, not least of which being the idea that when discovered in possession of cocaine in Edinburgh he attempted to make a getaway from the police by using his pace. For such a big lump that was never going to end well.

Seriously, though, this is a sad tale of a player who once offered so much. Not that long ago O’Connor was playing for his country and appearing in the Premier League in England. His fall has been spectacular. Back in January, O’Connor sat in the stand at Cowdenbeath as his Hibs team-mates played in the Scottish Cup. He told all around him that day that he would not be a Hibs player for much longer, that Rangers were in for him and that he was off to Ibrox.

Sadly, the fantasist has now become a felon.