EA Delays Rory Game To Open Championship Tuesday...

Does this mean Rory McIlroy will be prepping for The Open on the typically exhaustive EA ad creation and promotional circuit? Following his pre-Masters workout regimen to get ready for his workout shoots?

Anyway, Nick Menta with the latest on the eagerly anticipated follow up to the dormant Tiger Woods/PGA Tour edition, including the addition of Jordan Spieth to the game.

Details about the game have been slow to emerge but EA did confirm Masters champion Jordan Spieth as the game's second playable character earlier this week. Confirmed courses thus far include TPC Sawgrass, Wolf Creek and Royal Troon.

For gamers, Luke Kerr-Dineen adds this:

But Thursday proved a significant development. EA officially finalized its July 14th release date, and released a new trailer showing graphics and some actual gameplay features. There will be three different playing options, the hardest being the “tour” mode. In that setting, users won’t be able to zoom into the green, and they’ll use the analog stick to control the power of their shots.

Noted!

The trailer, which I suppose highlights just how beautiful Rory's swing is. Or how all of those sensors just can't quite capture the grace and athleticism of his move.

Masters Putts Made: Jordan 410 Feet, Rory 340 Feet

With the soft launch this year of Masters.com's "Track" feature we were treated to a ShotLink-light system that looked great and allowed us to track players when television wasn't showing them. Or, to see what distances they had off of tees, into greens or on the greens.

While the system did not provide ShotLink-type numbers or hole scatter charts, there was this enterprising use of the data on distances by Brian Keogh at the Irish Golf Desk in considering the issues Rory McIlroy faces in adapting to Augusta National's greens.

McIlroy, in contrast, totalled 86 feet, 71 feet, 101 feet and 82 feet of putts. In other words, he holed 340 feet worth of putts compared to 410 feet for Spieth.

It’s not that the Holywood star putted poorly but any means but while he holed just nine putts beyond eight feet for the week, Spieth holed 16. That's got little to do with McIlroy's overly conservative strategy in a week when soft conditions begged for his usual attacking style.

Rory, British Press Hit NYC To Pre-Celebrate Career Grand Slam

Kicking off his coronation as the next career Grand Slam winner, Rory McIlroy hosted several members of the British golf media last weekend at some of Northern Irishman’s favorite New York City nightclubs. According to eyewitnesses, McIlroy and father Gerry listened intently during sometimes emotional toasts from writers and television presenters saluting his forthcoming Masters win and third straight major victory.

“It was moving to see so many media members open up and profess just how much Rory means to their lives,” said golf blogger Stephanie Wei, who happened to be at The Electric Room when Rory and his entourage arrived just after the bar’s 11 p.m. opening. Wei said the McIlroy group was trailed by representatives of outlets including BBC, Sky Sports, The Times, The Irish Independent, The Irish Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph The Daily Mail, Scotland on Sunday, The Scotsman and even Rory’s hometown paper, The Holywood Pence Saver.

“There were several toasts and hip-hip-hoorays, even a salute to the Queen,” Wei said. “At one point I looked over and saw Rory roll up his shirt and flex his biceps. Several of the group were touching his muscles in awe. It was a bit much.”

As a DJ spun hip-hop tunes, two media members--who Wei refused to identify--shed tears while toasting Rory for not being like Tiger. Each media type ended their salutes by hugging the golfing great as father Gerry encircled the hug to make it a group embrace. After the unusually public show of emotion, several media members awarded a fake Masters green jacket to McIlroy and took a group selfie with the presumptive winner.

Just as the party appeared to be wrapping up well past the normal writer bedtime, Rory stood on one of the Electric Room’s leather booth seats and yelled out, “Come on you wankers, it’s only 1 am, let’s show Chelsea that golf writers are the dope!”

Various media members were seen fetching cabs as McIlroy and his entourage jumped in a black SUV destined for 1Oak, another favorite haunt from Rory’s previous major championship celebrations.

At one point, Rory and his media friends were seen using a homeless man’s cane to re-enact the infamous club hurl from Doral. But at 3:30 am, the NYPD was called to West 17^th Street when neighbors reported a ruckus involving the media members haggling with a Halal Guys food cart vendor. The man reportedly refused to give the scribes separate receipts for their grilled purchases.

Jaime Diaz's "The Story Of Rory"

Jaime Diaz traveled the globe trailing Rory McIlroy for the kind of magazine story we all relish heading into the Masters.

While the April Golf Digest cover is getting all the attention, this portion early on in the piece should prove interesting fodder for punters heading into the year's first two majors:

But there is evidence to support why McIlroy might not win at Augusta. In his six Masters, last year's T-8 is his best finish (see chart). In those 22 rounds, he has made an astounding 11 double bogeys and three triple bogeys. Just as amazing, considering McIlroy's length, his cumulative total on the par 5s is only 21 under. Although scattershot short irons have been responsible for most of his big numbers, McIlroy has had trouble on the iconic greens, consistently finishing in the bottom half of the field in putting.

"A firm and fast Augusta, or a typical U.S. Open setup, is probably the most difficult test for me," he says. "It requires so much discipline and precision, and that's something I'm still learning. I won a U.S. Open, but it was much wetter than normal, and even Hoylake was soft for a links. So if Augusta is fiery, winning there would get me closer to being a complete player, because I don't think I'm there yet."