Is Caroline Wozniacki Killing Rory McIlroy's Career?

Is Caroline Wozniacki Killing Rory McIlroy's Career?











Ryan Ballengee May 30, 2013 5:48 PM


COMMENTARY | Women make a lot men do a lot of crazy things. They make their hearts flutter, the ice in their veins melt and cause them to max out their credit cards on a nice diamond ring.



But do they ruin sports careers?



Ever since world No. 2 Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki got together in the summer
of 2011 after McIlroy broke through for his first major at the U.S. Open, the cynical thought has been that they'll ruin the other professionally speaking with all this love business.





With the Danish former No. 1 getting bounced in the second round of the French Open, and McIlroy opening the Memorial Tournament on Thursday with an embarrassing 6-over 78, the question is bound to arise again. After all, McIlroy is on the way to another missed cut, while Wozniacki hasn't advanced into the quarterfinals of any tournament she has entered since early April.



If it is being argued that Wozniacki is killing McIlroy's career, then certainly the opposite argument could be made.



Turns out, however, neither seems to have much of an effect on the other.



It should be first said that while a good golf result isn't exactly the same as a good tennis result, but it's not too hard to compare golf leaderboards and tennis brackets. It's 1.68-inch white balls and 2.63-inch fuzzy, neon balls, not apples and oranges. So a top-10 finish in golf is probably as good as making it to the quarterfinals or semifinals of a tennis tournament, depending on the size and strength of field.



Dating back to the start of the 2012 season -- accounting for the end of the relationship "honeymoon" period -- McIlroy and Wozniacki have competed in their respective sports at approximately the same time on 19 different occasions, including this week in Dublin, Ohio, and Roland Garros near Paris, respectively.



Of the 19 tournaments McIlroy and Wozniacki have played at about the same time, they have had similar-type finishes in 10 of those, or just a little more than half of the time. The trend lately has been for the lovebirds to fare about the same more often than not in 2013.



At the outset of the year, that wasn't true, however, as McIlroy traveled to Abu Dhabi to be unveiled as the next Nike Golf megastar staffer with a reported nine-figure endorsement deal...only to miss the cut. Meanwhile in Australia, Wozniacki advanced to the fourth round of the Aussie Open, the first major on the tennis calendar.



After that, though the next two concurrent-ish events had a lot in common. McIlroy was unceremoniously bounced in the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play in Arizona while Wozniacki was a Round 1 victim in Malaysia. Then a few weeks later, Caro got to the finals at Indian Wells, while McIlroy finished T-8 behind Tiger Woods while in the running on Sunday at Doral.



McIlroy enjoyed a decent first part of April, finishing runner-up in an emergency start against a lesser field at the Valero Texas Open before a top-25 effort at the Masters. It was right around then that Wozniacki dropped into a deep slump, where she has beaten no more than one opponent in her last five tournaments.



The Ulsterman, however, has also dropped into a May slump for the second consecutive year. He missed the cut last week at the BMW PGA Championship and his 78 to start at Muirfield Village has him poised to be a trunk-slammer on Friday. He missed three consecutive cuts in May last year before getting it together in Memphis, only to then miss the cut again at the U.S. Open.



Here's the thing, however: McIlroy is still No. 2 in the world and has a pair of majors. Wozniacki is dropping down the women's tennis rankings and has never hoisted a Grand Slam singles title. (McIlroy one-ups his girlfriend again, having been on two consecutive winning Ryder Cup teams. Wozniacki has never put much stock in the doubles game.)



But there's a lot more going on in the lives of both players than an undying love. It's a particularly turbulent time for McIlroy. He is reportedly cutting ties with his representation at Horizon Sports Management after just 18 months to step out on his own with his father, Gerry, leading Team McIlroy.



His ballstriking is outstanding, but McIlroy's putting is atrocious of late. He ranks 100th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting. He was 82nd last year, but was monumentally productive with the other 13 clubs in his bag.



Then there's the pressure of trying to stick close to Tiger Woods when he is clearly resurgent, having won four times on the PGA Tour this season, owning the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking by just-post-hydrant margins and the betting favorite to win a 15th major at next month's U.S. Open. And, oh yeah, they're on the same Nike Golf staff where it was expected at the outset of 2013 that they would be 1 and 1a for the Swoosh.



So if anyone if McIlro-rried about Rory and his prospects to win a third major in as many seasons, there are way more important things to fret about than Caroline Wozniacki.



Rory's got plenty of problems. Caroline isn't one.



Ryan Ballengee is a Washington, D.C.-based golf writer. His work has appeared on multiple digital outlets, including NBC Sports and Golf Channel. Follow him on Twitter @RyanBallengee.