CHUBBY CHANDLER SHARES THOUGHTS ON WOODS AND MCILROY
We caught up with former professional golfer Andrew “Chubby” Chandler as spoke about two of the biggest names in golf, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Q: What do you think is Rory’s place in history?
He’s probably behind Seve Ballesteros as the greatest Europe has ever produced. I don’t think he will catch Seve because Seve started Europe as a golf brand. He set it all off. But he is definitely the best after Seve. If we won a couple more majors he would go above Seve, maybe Rory is the best player in the world. He’s just short of a couple of nuts and bolts.
Q: With that being said, do you think there’s a chance that Rory may never realise his true potential?
He’s still the best, better than Scheffler and Schauffele. He addresses his game all the time, he needs to work on this and that but genuinely he is an unbelievable striker. However, he’s not got the ability to finish like the others and can he learn that at this age? Maybe not. That was an unbelievable chance in the US Open. You wouldn’t actually want him to go through a similar situation hoping for a different outcome now. If he wins, he wins by a stick.
Q: Do you see any fatal flaws holding him back?
There’s two frailties to Rory: his short putting and his game management. And it’s his game management because he is very stubborn and doesn’t want to listen to anybody. That club selection on 18, the driver when he’d hit three wood all week, and he hit straight into the shit, it was madness. I feel sorry for him. To be as good as he is, and when you saw him pitched up in the score room watching on telly, I felt sick for him. He’s there thinking ‘what have I done?’
Q: Did you reach out to Rory? Did you want to put an arm round him?
No. Not really. I think somebody of his talent shouldn’t have to do that all the time. It was tough that Bryson upped and downed it from 50 yards. I do think he’s good for the game, Bryson. I just wish somehow they’d come together a bit and sort it out because it's a shame; I don’t know if there is animosity or friction between the two. It’s more ego on one side than the other. It’s the ego of the lunatics. The shame of it is that Jay Monahan is a puppet. There’s no leadership so you’ve got a bunch of players who’ve decided they can lead it, but they don’t have the acumen to do it.I don’t know how long this TGL can go on for. Don’t you think it’s like how we never see people criticising the top guys, because they’re terrified they’ll never speak to them again. It’s only muppets like me who’ll say how it is.
Q: Do you think Tiger will have any success at the Majors this year?
Would Tiger make any difference? For me, someone like him should go out at the top, not the bottom. I don’t want to see Tiger like this. I remember Tiger when he won the US Open by 18 and the British Open by 15 or whatever it was. I now don’t want to watch him battle round. I don’t think it does his brand any good, him any good and doesn’t do any of those watching him any good. If he was 60 going round hitting 76, because he was old, fine. But he’s knackered. He still can’t walk properly, can he? But no one is rolling Tiger out. Tiger wants to be at the forefront of everything he can be. He wants to now run the PGA Tour because he can’t win the PGA Tour.
Q: Talking of Tiger, how good do you think his son Charlie could be?
I can see him turning pro. I don’t know how good he’ll be. He’s obviously very good but you have to be very very good and I would think being Tiger’s son is not that easy. Hopefully his dad will watch, that’ll put the crowds up and he’ll be offered wildcard invitations to tournaments, and he deserves a wildcard. He will get those invitations. It could be harsh on the lad and it’s hard to play on an invitation even if you’re not Tiger’s son. There’s an inherent pressure, a different pressure, once you’re invited to play in a tournament. And then to get that invitation for being Tiger’s son, that’s even more difficult.
