After walking out of the Honda Classic tournament last week, pro-golfer Rory McIlroy was warned that he would need more than a complaint of toothache to justify his decision to the tournament organisers. Luckily for the world number one, his regular dentist was on hand to provide the PGA Tour offices with a detailed account of the problems McIlroy has been having with his teeth – in particular one of his wisdom teeth.
Dentist Mark Conroy has been treating the 23-year-old for many years and probably was not expecting that he would still be looking after the star player following his rise to prominence in the sport. Tour organisers demanded a professional opinion on McIlroy’s condition after he walked off the course without completing a hole, blaming dental problems for putting him off his game. Although the practice in Belfast has declined to comment on the particular case – due to patient confidentiality – McIlroy has broken his silence over the incident, telling reporters at a press conference that he had realised ‘pretty quickly’ that he had made the wrong decision, admitting that ‘no matter how bad I was playing, I should have stayed out there.’
He also added ‘what I did was not good for the tournament, not good for the kids and the fans who were out there watching me.’