"Golf can get terribly po-faced at times."

Thanks to reader Ryan for sending in Tom English's Scotsman commentary on Rory McIlroy's apology/rationale for withdrawing, and as usual English has a thought provoking take that rises high above what we were subjected to earlier in the week.

Though I must admit, I didn't anticipate where he was going with this in bringing up past high profile WD's by Ian Poulter and Sandy Lyle, along with how "golf can get overly pious about these things." And his conclusion makes for a fascinating statement about the culture of golf.

That is the way of it. Tell a porky and save yourself some hassle. Everybody will turn a blind eye and we’ll all carry on as before, pretending that there is no chicanery in golf. No doping, no cheating, no gamesmanship and, in this instance, nobody who just has one of those lousy days when all they want to do was get out of there. Nobody is allowed to just quit. It has to be an injury. Or an “injury”.

Dave Shedloski says the same issues plagued McIlroy's game when opening with a 73 at Doral on a day the Blue Monster was defenseless. But I still like his chances of making it to the weekend!