2013 Golf: Tiger Woods vs Rory McIlroy II China

ESPN.com is reporting that Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy will have another showdown in China after the regular season is over. Of course there is nothing on the line here, and Rory beat Tiger by one stroke last year. Tiger received a $2 Million dollar appearance fee in 2012, and Rory got a Million. No appearance fees have been disclosed at this writing.

"In the first iteration of a McIlroy-Woods match in China last October, the Northern Irishman bested Tiger by a shot with a 67. They were No. 1 and No. 2 in the world at the time. Woods also received a reported $2 million appearance fee, while McIlroy earned $1 million. Details for this year were not released."

I’ll have to be honest with you here, I waited with great anticipation for the big match-up in Abu Dhabi last January, and was disappointed when both players missed the cut. Rory was struggling with the new golf clubs he inherited when he went to work with Tiger at Nike, and Tiger was penalized two strokes for removing his embedded ball and missed the cut by one stroke.

By the time the final round was played, Rory was off watching his girlfriend play tennis, and Tiger was back in the friendly confines of his home in Florida.

I hoped all year-long that Rory McIlroy would get his game in order, and show the fans that he belonged at Nike as the number two employee. Tiger went on to win five tournaments, and Rory is very close to being eliminated from the FedEx Championships unless he picks up the pace this week in Chicago.

So an exhibition match between Tiger and Rory in another part of the world is not on my must see TV list for late October. I’ll do like everyone else, and catch the replay which will undoubtedly be shown on the Golf Channel.