Norman tells McIlroy to ignore the media

If there’s one man who knows how Rory McIlroy felt following his Masters collapse at Augusta last month, it’s the Great White Shark Greg Norman.

In 1996, the Australian golfer led perhaps golf’s most prestigious tournament by six shots going into the final day, but proceeded to finish five shots behind eventual winner Nick Faldo after shooting a 78 in a round that, like McIlroy’s final round at Augusta, all went Pete Tong on the back nine.

Unfortunately for 22-year old McIlroy, the high profile meltdown will ensure that he is mentioned in the same breath as Norman and (god forbid) Jean Van de Velde whenever the most famous episodes of choking in golf are up for discussion, but Norman has told him to forget about the naysayers in the fourth estate and concentrate on his own game.

Speaking in Quail Hollow ahead of his defence of the Wells Fargo Championship he won last year, McIlroy revealed that Norman had some choice words of advice for the young protégé when he ran into him in Malaysia in recent weeks.

“I spoke with Greg during the week of the Malaysian Open and his advice was ‘don’t listen to you guys (the media),” said McIlroy.

“Greg just sort of said to me, ‘don’t read golf magazines, don’t pick up the newspapers, don’t watch the Golf channel’.

“I’ve taken my own views from what happened a few weeks ago and I’ve moved on, and that’s the most important thing.

“I displayed a few weaknesses sin my game, and it was just a bad back nine, a very bad back nine that sort of took the tournament away from me.

“But I’ve got three more majors this year and hopefully dozens more that I’ll play in my career.”