McIlroy delighted attention has switched to Woods - ESPN.co.uk
Rory McIlroy is happily flying under the radar this week, believing the reduced attention on his game may help him challenge at the Open Championship.
McIlroy was the man of the moment ahead of the same tournament 12 months ago, having pocketed the 2011 US Open. His appearance at The Open back then was his first since that record-breaking feat, and pressure was on McIlroy to reproduce.
The scrutiny led to an anti-climactic 25th-place finish, and has since been followed by a series of poor performances from the 23-year-old. Four missed cuts in his last six tournaments is hardly major-winning form, but it has helped shift the pressure to the likes of Tiger Woods, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood.
McIlroy has courted far less coverage so far at Royal Lytham, and he admits it has helped him focus on his game ahead of Thursday's tee-off.
"It's been great," McIlroy said in a press conference. "It's been lovely just going about my business - definitely not the madness that was going on last year.
"It's nice. I've tried to keep it as low-key as possible and feel like I've done that pretty well. Obviously people still come up and want photos and stuff, but the commotion's definitely not as bad.
"The hype [of last year] and everything was so big that it maybe had a little bit to do with it, but at the end of the day I just didn't play well enough to figure in the tournament."
McIlroy's poor display at last year's Open prompted him to make one or two unfortunate comments, notably that he could not wait to get back to the US. It was seen by sections of the media as a sign the Northern Irishman was turning his back on his roots, but McIlroy puts it down to immaturity.
"Those comments were just pure frustration with having really high expectations going into it, coming off a major win," he said.
"Blaming the weather, blaming the draw, blaming my luck - that was just frustration. Looking back I just didn't handle the conditions as best I could have.
"That's something that I'm trying to do more of and to some degree at Portrush [in the Irish Open two weeks ago] I felt like I played well in the bad conditions. If it's like that again this week you're just going to have to knuckle down and focus and keep fighting."
© ESPN EMEA Ltd
RSS to burn copy of Kashmir interlocutors report - New Kerala
Chandigarh, July 17 : The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) will burn copies of the Jammu and Kashmir interlocutors' "dangerous" report across the country soon, a senior leader said here Tuesday.
RSS leader Indresh Kumar told media persons here that the RSS would soon decide a date to burn the copies of the report submitted by the three interlocutors to the central government.
"The interlocutors' report is extremely dangerous for the unity and integrity of the country. It will lead to division of the country," he alleged, terming the report as being against Kashmir's integration with India.
The report has recommended the setting up of a constitutional committee to review all central laws extended to the state and making permanent Article 370 of the constitution that grants the state a special status.
Indresh Kumar said the interlocutors had taken a line which will allow a third agency to mediate on the Kashmir issue which India will not tolerate.
He said that Pakistan had no right to the areas of Kashmir it currently occupies.
The report, "A New Compact with the People of Jammu and Kashmir", prepared by the three interlocutors - senior journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academician Radha Kumar and former information commissioner M.M. Ansari - was made public early this month. (IANS)
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