McIlroy plans Saturday practice at Whistling Straits

The Northern Irishman has not played since rupturing the anterior ligament in his left ankle early last month, an injury that prevented him from defending his British Open title at St. Andrews.

McIlroy's manager, Sean O'Flaherty, did not respond to an email seeking comment. News that the four-times major champion plans to tee it up on the Wisconsin course this weekend is the first indication that he may defend his title at the PGA Championship, which starts next Thursday.

McIlroy won last year's event by one stroke at Valhalla in Kentucky, his second PGA title in three years, and he finished one shot out of a playoff the last time the PGA Championship was at Whistling Straits in 2010.

The 26-year-old has ruled himself out of this week's World Golf Championship event in Akron, Ohio. Previously, he said that although his rehab was going well, he did not want to rush back before he was ready. See more : http://post.jagran.com/mcilroy-plans-saturday-practice-at-whistling-straits-1438687731

Source: Sports News

Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods hail McIlroy's Open victory

"I like his swagger," said 18-time major winner Nicklaus on his official Facebook page. "I like the way he handles himself.

"I like his desire to be great. I like his desire to do the things he needs to do. I like that in a young guy. He's cocky in a nice way."

McIlroy went into the last day holding a six-stroke lead and Nicklaus said he was particularly impressed with the way he protected his advantage with a safety-first 71 in the final round.

"He didn't take some of the chances that he did in the other rounds as far as the clubs he hit off the tee," added the Golden Bear.

"Rory didn't put himself in position to lose the golf tournament. He did what he needed to do ... It's about shooting what you have to shoot to win the golf tournament."

Woods, who finished 69th of the 72 players who made the cut at Royal Liverpool in only his second competitive appearance since undergoing back surgery in March, compared new world number two McIlroy to his great rival Phil Mickelson.

"The way Rory plays is pretty aggressively," said the 14-time major champion. "When he gets it going, he gets it going. When it gets going bad, it gets going real bad - it's one or the other.

"He's very similar to what Phil does. He has his hot weeks and he has his weeks where he's off. And that's just the nature of how he plays the game.

"He hasn't really been making the amount of putts that he did a couple of years ago, but now he's starting to make those 10- to 15-footers. That turns rounds around," Woods said.

"You make two or three birdies in a row, you make a par putt here and there. Next thing you know a round where you would normally shoot one- or two-over and all of a sudden it's a 69 and then you get the hot round and it's a 66 or 65."

GREAT PERFORMANCES

Mickelson said it would be tough for McIlroy, who has only Australian Adam Scott ahead of him in the rankings, to dominate world golf the way Woods and Nicklaus once did.

"We used to say there will never be another Nicklaus and then along came Tiger," said the five-time major winner.

"You never want to discount the possibility of someone coming along and dominating but nobody has really asserted themselves week in and week out the way Tiger did for such a long period of time.

"We'll have great performances, like Rory this week, like Martin Kaymer at last month's US Open ... but it's very hard to do that week in and week out the way Tiger did."

McIlroy's Ryder Cup partner Graeme McDowell said the acid test for his friend now was to continue to score well on a consistent basis even when he was not at his best.

"Tiger had that capability of getting the job done ugly," said McDowell after finishing tied ninth at Hoylake. "Perhaps Rory has to prove he's got that side to him.

"I can just sort of sit back and admire how good Rory is and we'll watch from there. But the third leg of the major grand slam at 25 - that's pretty good."

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