LOS ANGELES: World number one Rory McIlroy says he regrets withdrawing from the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic and if he had to do it over again he would have stuck it out even if it meant shooting an 85.
“It was a reactive decision,” McIlroy told Sports Illustrated. “What I should have done is take my drop, chip it on, try to make a five and play my hardest on the back nine, even if I shot 85.
“What I did was not good for the tournament, not good for the kids and the fans who were out there watching me -- it was not the right thing to do.”
The 23-year-old Northern Irishman, who was trying to defend the Florida title, is now sorry he pulled out midway through the second round with a wisdom tooth problem. He was seven-over par at the time.
McIlroy took plenty of heat for pulling out of the event and it only made an already rough start to the season worse for him.
“I didn’t want to be there,” he said.
He said he expects to have one of his troublesome lower wisdom teeth pulled following the US Open in June.
Meanwhile, British Open champion Ernie Els says he regrets not advising Rory McIlroy against walking out.
“I must say, when I shook his hand on 18, I wanted to say something to him, but I didn’t, and I kind of regret that. It was obviously a heat of the moment thing. He is who he is. You’ve got to respect what the individual at that moment is like, and he wanted to get off,” Els told a news conference.
“We obviously heard that he had his wisdom tooth was bothering him, and if that was the reason, that was that. I would have been out of my depth at that stage to say something to him if something was bothering him. So I didn’t, but I thought I should have,” he added yesterday.
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