NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Rory McIlroy can be spotted on screen in movies featuring Hollywood\u2019s biggest stars.<\/p>\n
He had speaking lines \u2014 pulling off a \u201cSaved by the Bell\u201d joke \u2014 in Adam Sandler\u2019s \u201cHappy Gilmore 2\u201d and even snagged a bit part for his wife alongside him for a party scene in the recent Anne Hathaway movie \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s something about sequels that fits McIlroy just fine these days.<\/p>\n
No red carpet needed.<\/p>\n
Try green jackets. Two of them, after he joined Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only repeat winners of the Masters.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old McIlroy is living his best life ahead of this weekend\u2019s PGA Championship, feeling at ease as he navigates not only the pressures of trying to win another major, but time management that comes with outside opportunities, as well \u2014 running the gamut from movie cameos to schmoozing with the Kelce brothers on their podcast to a state dinner during the visit of King Charles III at the White House with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you have to enjoy the perks,\u201d McIlroy said, \u201cbecause I know that isn\u2019t going to last forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy, winner of the 2012 and 2014 PGA Championships, even found time to squeeze in rounds two weeks ago at Aronimink Golf Club to get a feel for the course before the first round starts Thursday. McIlroy played his only rounds at the suburban Philadelphia course at the 2018 BMW Championship and found the early visits can sometimes give him a bit of an edge headed into otherwise unfamiliar courses for the bulk of the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely think courses we don\u2019t see very often, whether it\u2019s here or Shinnecock or Frisco, it certainly has benefited me over the years,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cI remember the first time I did it for a major championship was Congressional in 2011 on the back of a recommendation from Jack Nicklaus. So, it\u2019s helped me over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The advice from Nicklaus for the early trip to Congressional Country Club was a success \u2014 McIlroy won the 2011 U.S. Open by eight strokes.<\/p>\n
McIlroy is trying to join Ben Hogan (1953), Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972), Tiger Woods (2002) and Jordan Spieth (2015) as the only golfers to win the first two majors of the year in the modern rotation.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing into this tournament feels a lot different than what it did last year,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve got some nice clear road ahead to try to get some more of these majors.\u201d<\/p>\n
For as much has gone right for McIlroy \u2014 and at only 37, he shows no sign of slowing down \u2014 he\u2019s happy to admit when he gets something wrong.<\/p>\n
LIV Golf had a seemingly endless supply of Saudi money that suddenly is coming to an end. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia bankrolled LIV and seemingly had a deal in place to join commercial forces with the PGA Tour. The Saudis walked away from LIV and McIlroy admitted Tuesday at Aronimink that he never should have advocated for them to invest in the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can admit when I\u2019m wrong, and that was one that I did get wrong,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cI think it was always a possibility to happen. I think everyone knows like with everything that\u2019s happening in the Middle East, that had a lot to do; but whenever you have funding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape in the world, that\u2019s a tricky road to navigate.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy, the only European with the career Grand Slam, hasn\u2019t found much else to worry about this year.<\/p>\n
He played last weekend at Quail Hollow (one of his favorite courses), making the Truist Championship his lone tournament since he won at Augusta.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to take the time after the Masters to reset and decompress and get myself in the right mental space again to get myself up for this tournament and keep going for the U.S. Open and The Open Championship,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Scottie Scheffler is the betting favorite to win at Aronimink, followed by McIlroy.<\/p>\n
After a career full of chasing, chasing, chasing and falling short at Augusta, McIlroy was about swallowed by the enormity last year of actually winning the Masters.<\/p>\n
The fulfilment of a career Grand Slam left him wondering, what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n
Turned out, the answer was as simple as winning Augusta again.<\/p>\n
He now has six majors, tied with Nick Faldo, Lee Trevino and Phil Mickelson. The professional bucket list is about full \u2014 how about a gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics? \u2014 and the only real challenge is to see how high he can rise among the career major winners.<\/p>\n
McIlroy\u2019s not even close to yelling, \u201cCut!\u201d on his career. But if there are more film projects out there looking for an actor to play, well, give the Northern Irishman a shout.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a day where I\u2019m not sitting up here and I\u2019m not competing for major championships and I\u2019m not doing what I\u2019m doing,\u201d he said. \u201cI guess while I\u2019m doing it, I have to enjoy it, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Rory McIlroy can be spotted on screen in movies featuring Hollywood\u2019s biggest stars.…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1607,1609,293,1606,196,15,294,82,1610,1608,602,726,356,357,355,297,17,13,27,243],"class_list":["post-3648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rory-mcilroy","tag-adam-sandler","tag-anne-hathaway","tag-arnold-palmer","tag-diplomacy","tag-donald-trump","tag-golf","tag-jack-nicklaus","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-lee-trevino","tag-masters-golf-tournament","tag-nick-faldo","tag-pa-state-wire","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pga-championship","tag-phil-mickelson","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-sports","tag-tiger-woods","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}