A Fresh Start?

Peter McEvoy, the former Walker Cup captain, is just one to feel that too many of today’s amateurs do not understand anywhere near enough about the workings of the professional game when they leave the amateur ranks.

"It is a difficult transition," says McEvoy. "The better amateurs will have had their hotels and air-fares paid by the various amateur bodies and they come to expect a certain modus-operandi which is simply not going to apply when they leave the amateur ranks. People are not going to be running around after them and arranging contracts for nothing."

Back in 1998, a little more knowledge would certainly have done no harm to the then 17-year-old Justin Rose when he signed for a relatively unknown management group in the immediate wake of his share of fourth place in the 1998 Open. The group in question promised all the right things but failed to get any of the sponsorships signed and sealed before Rose teed up in his first professional event.

When Rose proceeded to miss one cut and then another, it is hardly surprising that those sponsors-in-the-making laid down their pens.

Competitive soul that he is, McIlroy will be desperate to come out on the winning side of his battle with Horizon.

Everyone else, meantime, would far rather he was directing more of his competitive energies to making the most of what could be his most prolific golfing years. The most oft-repeated viewpoint is that that he already has more than enough extra-curricular activities on his plate as he tries to blend his schedule with Wozniacki’s. Indeed, in one more illustration of how he is as supportive of her as she is of him, he plans to be at his girlfriend’s side for the forthcoming Australian Open,

Tiger Woods may have had his share of injury problems as a young man but the rather more destructive goings-on in his life did not catch up with him until he was in his 30s. By that time, of course, he had 14 majors safely in the bag.

McIlroy insists that he is going to leave his latest team to sort out his financial affairs as from now but that has to easier said than done. Since he has been acutely aware of how much money he has been paying Horizon, he is hardly going to be oblivious to what he is shelling out in legal fees over the coming months.

At the time of writing, there has been nothing to suggest that the situation might be resolved any earlier than October.

And that though McIlroy, in the longer term, would not want to be responsible for the downfall of Horizon any more than Horizon would want to be blamed for standing in the way of a unique talent.